Bill Shorten has accused Peter Dutton of not being ready to govern and failing to admit mistakes, after the opposition leader appeared to back away from an earlier promise to cut net overseas migration.
The government services minister accused the opposition leader of “stubbornness” and not having done his “homework” on two different measures of migration. Dutton’s office has denied dumping the commitment.
In his budget reply speech on 16 May, Dutton pledged to cut permanent migration annually by 25% from 2024-25, from 185,00 to 140,000 for the first two years, stepping back up to 150,000 and then 160,000 over the next two.
On 17 May, in radio interviews on 3AW and 2GB, Dutton also committed to cut net overseas migration to 160,000. Cutting net overseas migration from 260,000 to 160,000 would represent a cut of 38%.
Permanent migration refers to those given long-term visas, including skilled migrants and family visas.
Net overseas migration is the difference between those leaving and those entering the country, and includes those on temporary visas. It has spiked post-Covid due to pent-up demand of those seeking to enter Australia and lower than usual departures.
On Sunday, Dutton declined to reaffirm the commitment in an interview with Sky News, pointing instead to his plans for reducing permanent migration, without confirming numbers for net overseas migration.
“What we’ve said is that we want our migration program to step down in the first two years,” he said. “It will ramp up again in years three and four, and we will bring down the numbers who come through the humanitarian and refugee program, back to the long-run average of that.
“That’s what will work for our country. Again, we’ll have a look at the economic settings, as we said at the time of the policy announcement.”
Despite speculation at the time that Dutton’s commitment to cut net overseas migration was a misstatement, the figure of 160,000 was backed as achievable by the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, and the shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor.
On Monday, Shorten told reporters in Canberra that he thought both Dutton and Taylor had confused permanent and net overseas migration.
“What this shows you is that Peter Dutton isn’t ready for government,” he said.
“Maybe it’s a debate which to some people might seem pedantic, but if you don’t know the difference between the number of people coming to Australia and leaving Australia and permanent migration – what other mistakes are they making?
“I think Peter Dutton also finds it very hard to admit that he gets things wrong.
“Whether or not it’s a combination of stubbornness, Angus Taylor being an economic klutz – it just shows you the opposition haven’t done the homework on that.”
A spokesperson for Dutton insisted both commitments still applied.
“Mr Dutton has been on the record on numerous occasions stating what our migration figures are, net and permanent – I don’t think he could be accused of shying away from that,” the spokesperson said.
In June Dutton also appeared to walk away from a commitment to reveal the Coalition’s proposed redesign of income tax cuts ahead of the election.
On Sunday, Dutton blamed the budget bottom line for further equivocation.
“Of course we want lower, fairer, simpler taxes,” Dutton told Sky News. “But we have to be able to pay for it, and it will depend on the fiscal position when we get closer to the election that will be obviously made known to us.”
Pressed further to reassert the previous promise, Dutton again declined.
“We’ve just got to deal with the reality at the moment,” he said.
