Peter Dutton is conflating temporary and permanent migrants to criticise Labor’s immigration track record, say experts who argue the opposition leader’s cuts to permanent migration will do little to free up housing as he claims.

Dutton slammed Labor for bringing “a million people through the migration program” in its first two years of power, in a budget reply speech on Thursday night, in which he also restated a Coalition pledge to cut the annual permanent migrants intake by 25 per cent – to about 140,000.