Scott Morrison’s vow to cut migration intake supported by population minister, Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott has backed Scott Morrison’s call to slash Australia’s immigration intake, despite the PM arguing against it just months ago.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has backed Scott Morrison’s call to slash Australia’s immigration intake.

Speaking after the Sydney launch of Dr Kevin Donnelly’s new book, “How Political Correctness is Destroying Education”, he said: “What we saw from the Prime Minister last night in his Bradfield Oration was a recognition that continued record levels of immigration are starting to hurt us.

“It’s putting downward pressure on wages, it’s putting upward pressure on housing affordability, and its clogging our roads and public transport.

“We need to scale (immigration) back quite substantially and I think that the Prime Minister is well and truly hearing that message from the Australian public.

“This is a government that gets it when it comes to the things that are concerning the Australian people.”

Former prime minister Tony Abbott speaks during the launch of a new book by Dr Kevin Donnelly at the Sofitel Wentworth Hotel in Sydney. Picture: AAP

Mr Abbott’s comments come after Mr Morrison’s population minister defended his backflip on immigration after the Prime Minister vowed to cut Australia’s migrant intake.

Population and Urban Infrastructure Minister Alan Tudge said today that slashing the nation’s migrant intake by 30,000 a year wouldn’t result in the multi-billion dollar hit to the federal budget bottom line that Mr Morrison warned of as Treasurer just nine months ago.

Mr Morrison argued strongly against cutting the nation’s immigration rate in February when former prime minister Tony Abbott called for the rate to be reduced by about 80,000.

He said at the time that it would result in a $5 billion hit to the budget over the next four years.

But Mr Tudge said that Australia’s immigration numbers had already fallen by about 30,000 this year and that figure had been budgeted for.

He acknowledged the effect of any migration cut on the budget would have to be taken into account but noted that a reduction of 30,000 would “absolutely” not have the same impact as reducing the rate by 80,000.

“This is an overall balance,” he told ABC radio.

OPINION: We’re more united about immigration than we think

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced overnight he would cut Australia’s migrant intake. Picture: AAP/Joel Carrett

Population Minister Alan Tudge has defended Mr Morrison’s move. Picture: Mathew Farrell

“Migration brings growth, it brings skills, it brings younger people into the population to better cater for the ageing population. So it’s very important we do maintain a migration intake, particularly a skilled migration intake.

“But that’s got to be balanced out in terms of the population pressures that particularly Melbourne and Sydney are feeling.”

As signalled by Mr Morrison over the past month, Mr Tudge said states and territories would be given a greater say in the nation’s migrant intake in a “bottom up process”.

“The process now will be that the Prime Minister will discuss this with each of the states and territories. They will tell us what their plans are and what the population should be in their particular state and territory [and] what infrastructure they have to cater for that,” he said.

“And then the population number in essence will be an aggregation of those figures. So, it will likely mean a reduction in the migration intake but we’ll go through the process to determine that.”

Mr Tudge added: “I fully expect in South Australia, in the Northern Territory, in Western Australia, in Tasmania that they’ll be asking for more people. They want to grow their populations.”

In February, Mr Morrison said it was worth debating the nation’s immigration intake but it should be “informed by the facts”.

The annual cap on migration is currently set at 190,000.

“If you cut the level of permanent immigration to Australia by 80,000 that would cost the budget, that would hit the bottom line, the deficit, by $4 to $5 billion over the next four years,” he said.

“I think it is important you manage population growth well and that’s why, as a government, we’ve done things like extending the waiting list for welfare for people who come as migrants.

“People should come to make a contribution, not take one. That’s the immigration policy we’re running.”

He added that temporary migration, such as students, backpackers and visitors had contributed to population pressure in recent years more than skilled migrants who moved to Australia permanently.

In recent weeks however, Mr Morrison has increasingly signalled that he is open to reviewing the nation’s migrant intake.

Overnight, he said that he was likely to lower migration caps to prevent the countries biggest cities from being swamped.

Speaking at The Daily Telegraph’s 2018 Bradfield Oration at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney, the Prime Minister said: “Australians in our biggest cities are concerned about population. They are saying: enough, enough, enough.”

“The roads are clogged, the buses and trains are full. The schools are taking no more enrolments. I hear what you are saying. I hear you loud and clear.”

He added: “We need to improve how we manage population growth in this country.”

In a sign there is division among Mr Morrison’s leadership team on the issue, Defence Minister Christopher Pyne yesterday shot down calls to slash the nation’s immigration rate as a new poll showed almost half of voters would back the annual intake being cut.

“We have a continent the size of the United States and the US population is more than ten times larger than ours,” Mr Pyne told Sky News.

“We have room to grow.

“If our cities are congested like Sydney or Melbourne then we need to find ways of moving new migrants out into the regions.

“We don’t need to put a handbrake on population growth, we need to manage our population growth sensibly.”

The Fairfax Ipsos poll yesterday showed 45 per cent of voters wanted the annual migrant intake reduced, 23 per cent wanted rates to increase while 29 per cent were happy with the status quo.