The Coalition will withhold support for the government’s $40 a fortnight increase in jobseeker, with Peter Dutton using his budget reply speech to instead call for welfare recipients to be able to earn more before payments are reduced.
The opposition leader criticised Labor on migration levels and nuclear energy in his budget reply on Thursday evening, but supported some of the government’s proposed welfare and cost-of-living relief measures.
These include incentives to improve bulk-billing for children and concession card-holders, expanding the single parent payment to those whose children are aged up to 14, higher rent assistance, and higher jobseeker payments for those aged 55 to 60.
Dutton also advocated for improvements in women’s health, and to ban sports betting advertising during the broadcast and for an hour each side of a sporting game.
The Albanese government intends to spend $4.9bn to increase working age payments for 1.1 million Australians by $40 a fortnight, and by $92.10 for those aged 55 to 60 who are long-term unemployed.
On the jobseeker increase, Dutton complained that the budget had done “nothing … to reduce barriers to work” for the unemployed.
“There are over 840,000 jobseeker recipients of which more than 75% had no reported earnings – that is, no part-time work.”
He proposed “a permanent increase to the income-free threshold” allowing people to earn more before their welfare payment is decreased. “This will incentivise more job seekers to take up opportunities and enable Australians on low incomes to be supported.”
Labor will be able to pass the jobseeker increase, due to take effect from 20 September, with Greens and crossbench support.
Dutton criticised Labor for the fact net migration was projected to increase “massively by 1.5 million people over five years”.
“The Albanese government’s Big Australia approach will make the cost-of-living crisis and inflation worse,” he said.
Labor had pre-empted the attacks in question time, by noting that Dutton had backed the government when it raised the permanent migration cap at the jobs and skills summit in September.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, also argued that net migration was still less than projected before the Covid border closure, and only appeared high because borders have recently reopened.
“What happened, there was a pandemic and people didn’t come so they were not there to go,” he said.
“What has happened now is the economy has opened up, and students are coming to start their degrees, but they are not leaving because they haven’t finished their degrees.”
But in the reply, Dutton linked the “biggest migration surge” to the “housing and rental crisis”, arguing the government “proposing to bring in almost 6,000 people per week … will make a bad situation worse”.
Dutton said that “next-generation, small modular nuclear technologies are safe, reliable, cost-effective, can be plugged into existing grids where we have turned off coal, and emit zero emissions” – signalling that the Coalition would fight to remove the prohibition on nuclear energy.
Dutton also claimed “Labor wants gas gone” despite senior ministers repeatedly reiterating their support for it as a transition fuel.
He accused Labor of “introducing a new carbon tax – three times more than Julia Gillard’s”, an apparent reference to the safeguard mechanism to reduce industrial emissions causing global heating.
Dutton criticised “pushing to electrify homes and businesses despite the exorbitant cost for families”, a measure that is designed to help households save on heating and gas.
He also criticised “increasing taxes on offshore gas and oil projects in this budget”, in reference to changes to the petroleum resource rent tax to net $2.4bn more over four years.
Dutton said the Coalition in government would “get more gas into the domestic system” but did not say whether they would oppose the PRRT change, driving Labor to negotiate instead with the Greens.
Dutton also sent an ambiguous signal on aged care, calling for “additional” funding but warning “aged care funding is not a magic pudding”.
“A respectful, dignified, world-class aged care system is only funded by residents or taxpayers.”
“I want to work with the government to ensure that our aged care system remains sustainable.”
Dutton said the Coalition would “support sustainable funding” in the national disability insurance scheme but called on Labor to explain how it plans to reduce NDIS spending growth.
Despite Liberal MPs calling for the release of more policy in the wake of the historic Aston byelection defeat, Dutton’s speech contained few new measures. He promised to invest $4m in Ovarian Cancer Australia and to spend $5m reviewing “women-specific health items on the Medicare Benefits Schedule”.
Dutton also committed to restore Medicare funding for psychology sessions from 10 sessions to 20, and to crack down on sexual abuse by doubling the size of the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.
