Topics: IMF report on economy, Coalition’s migration policy

E&OE.......................    

‍

PATRICIA KARVELAS: I want to bring in my political panel for today. Dave Sharma is a Liberal Senator and the Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs. Michelle Ananda-Raja is a Labor Senator for Victoria. Welcome to both of you.

‍

MICHELLE ANANDA-RAJAH: Hi, PK.

‍

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Pretty disturbing report out of the IMF warning about, well, a global recession if this war continues. Starting with you, Dave Sharma, does that mean the war needs to end? Is that something that we should be really pushing for as much as we can with our ally?

‍

DAVE SHARMA: Look, I'd say the IMF report was alarming, but its particular comments about Australia, the inflation outlook and the growth outlook are particularly alarming because Australia is entering this crisis in a worse position than other economies, with advanced inflation already too high, too high, and economic growth anemic. Now, I would say, yes, I think it's in global economic interest, our national interest, for this war to come to an end as quickly as possible. But to wish for something and to bring it about are two quite different things. And until such time as the Strait of Hormuz is basically liberated from Iranian control  unless the war ends with that being a precondition or a condition, if you like, of the end of hostilities, then the fuel crisis that we're dealing with in Australia and the economic shock that's being caused by that is not going to dissipate.

‍

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Senator, if I can bring you in. Michelle Ananda Raja, the recession warning, of course, is very disturbing. Australians have really gone through quite a few rounds of downturns. We've been dealing with inflation for some time. We might be in a situation where we actually have to help people and provide cost of living relief if this continues. Is that something that you think that would need to be looked at?

‍

MICHELLE ANANDA-RAJAH: I think the IMF report also sounded a note of caution around dispensing untargeted cost of living support. Because it may in fact worsen inflation, and then that hurts everyone, including businesses and ordinary Australians. So I think all of these considerations will be weighed up by the Treasurer in the run-up to the upcoming budget. But broadly speaking, I think there are other ways to help people, and I would cite the fact that we have backed in a wage increase for our lowest-paid workers. 2.7 million workers are on the minimum wage. These are people who are also most exposed to cost of living pressures. And then there are a whole range of other, what I would describe as broad spectrum measures that help all Australians without adding to inflation. Things like increasing bulk billing, noting that only this week we've seen an additional 3,700 clinics around the country take up bulk billing. That is enormous. That’s almost 2 years ahead of schedule compared to our original modeling. We've also provided relief in other ways through cheaper medicines. Scripts are now $25. We've got urgent care clinics right around the country, as we've gone towards 150, Australians can walk in and see a doctor for free. So cost of living can appear in many different forms, and I think in the run-up to the budget, we want to make sure that we don't make the fight against inflation harder while still supporting Australians during this really challenging period.

‍

PATRICIA KARVELAS: I want to go to the immigration policy that your side of politics announced yesterday, Dave Sharma. I spoke a little earlier to Tony Barry. He says there's a real possibility that this will really scare a lot of migrants in Australia, given some of the way that the rhetoric has been pushed. Does that worry you? I mean, you've long argued for really building a bigger base for the Coalition. Will this do the opposite?

‍

DAVE SHARMA: No, I don't think it will, but I'm conscious that we do need to get out there and communicate and explain that our policy is about making sure that our migration program is working in all Australians' national interests and all Australians' national interests. It's about making sure that the people who come to this country— and we are blessed that a lot of people want to come to this country, more than we can accommodate— the people that come to this country are able to make a contribution, are equipped with the right skills and attributes to make a contribution, and are going to support our way of life. And that is something that should be seen in a positive light for any person who's chosen to make a home here. Whether they've migrated in this generation or if they're descended from migrants or they're our Indigenous Australians.

‍

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Michelle, the policy has been rebuked by your side of politics, by the government, but Tony Barry also made the point that actually a lot of Australians agree broadly in this idea that standards have been too low, also in the idea that our migration program is too high. Isn't there also the risk that some people actually if you're opposing it strongly will actually be sympathetic to these ideas?

‍

MICHELLE ANANDA-RAJAH: I think the point here is that Angus Taylor was really trying to manage his One Nation problem, and we shouldn't conflate that with responsible management of our immigration policy, which is what we are trying to do. In fact, most of the measures that he cited, we have already been doing. We've already enacted them. We have brought down our net overseas migration by 40% from its peak post-COVID. We're pivoting our permanent migration pathway to more skilled migration so that we have those workers to build the homes that we need. For example, we've also strengthened the English language test. We have banned visa hopping by students to stop them from overextending their time in Australia by signing up to poor quality courses. These are real measures that we're already instituting. Now, we don't go around blowing a dog whistle, which has turned into a megaphone pandering to the One Nation base. Instead, as a government, noting that we are governing a migrant nation where 1 in 3 Australians have come from somewhere else, where 1 in 2 Australians have either come from somewhere else or have a parent who has come from somewhere else, where 1 in 3 small businesses are run by migrants, our responsibility is to manage down our immigration intake in a responsible way while also preserving social cohesion.

‍

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Dave Sharma, the big dog whistle megaphone, some people have described it that way. I mean, it's not— there are some people who are really concerned about this policy. You said you need to go out and argue for it, but already it's been interpreted in pretty concerning ways if you want to actually build a voter base.

‍

DAVE SHARMA: Well, I think the people with the dog whistles and the megaphones out there are Labor politicians today, frankly. I mean, I've seen Tony Burke's extraordinary press conference. If you look just as one example at what Canada's been doing with its migration program over the last two years under a centre-left government led by a liberal in the small L sense, which means in the centre-left sense in Canada, Mark Carney, they've been reducing the number of students, reducing their overall migration intake, balancing towards skills, and quite explicitly linking their migration intake to the availability of infrastructure, including housing. Now, as far as I'm aware, Canada doesn't have a one nation problem. We're doing this in Australia, the Liberal Party, that is the Coalition, because we believe it's in Australia's national interest. And I think a large part of the public would agree with us. I mean, you just had Senator Ananda Raja saying, well, Labor's already doing this, so there's nothing to see here. There's nothing to worry about. I don't think you can have it both ways. You can't say the Coalition is running a scare campaign, but in fact, we're already doing whatever they're— whatever there is they're asking us to do. All right.

‍

PATRICIA KARVELAS: We're out of time. We'll talk again. Thank you to both of you.

‍

DAVE SHARMA: Thanks so much.

‍

[ENDS]