Tony Abbott escalates feud with Scott Morrison over immigration levels
TONY Abbott has dramatically escalated his feud with Scott Morrison over immigration levels, claiming the Treasurer “should have the gumption to think for himself”.
National
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TONY Abbott has hit back at Scott Morrison over his call to drastically cut immigration levels, saying the Treasurer “should have the gumption to think for himself”.
The former prime minister has also revealed previously secret internal government discussions from 2015 about reducing Australia’s cap on immigration levels in a blunt Facebook today.
It comes after Mr Morrison yesterday slammed down Mr Abbott’s call to cut the annual permanent immigration cap from 180,000 to 110,000.
The Treasurer had said slashing the permanent immigration rate would cost the budget billions of dollars over forward estimates and be like “cutting off your nose to spite your face”.
Today, Mr Abbott responded, saying: “Scott Morrison has conveniently forgotten the very vigorous discussion about cutting immigration that took place inside government in early 2015 as part of the budget process.”
“Because we were achieving a reduction anyway I eventually decided not to adjust the official figure but I kept it on the table as I never accepted the Treasury orthodoxy that more migrants meant more growth and a stronger budget outcome,” he wrote on Facebook.
“If Treasury is right why not solve the deficit simply by ramping up immigration?
“I repeat, we should not let Treasury’s accounting rules stop the government from acting in our medium term national interests and Scott should have the gumption to think for himself.”
The internal spat between Mr Morrison and Mr Abbott comes as senior Liberals attempt to repair the relationship between Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce after their public war of words last week.
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The government is also attempting to shift focus off Mr Joyce’s affair with a former staffer, which has been a “distraction” from what the government wants to talk about for two weeks.
Mr Morrison yesterday rejected Mr Abbott’s suggestion that Australia’s housing affordability issues and sluggish wage growth would improve if migration was reduced.
“I was the Immigration Minister for Tony Abbott and the permanent immigration intake we have today is exactly the same as it was when he was Prime Minister,” Mr Morrison told reporters in Melbourne yesterday.
“I don’t recall at any time there was any discussion that that should be lowered at that time and I do recall housing affordability being a significant issue at that time.”
He said if the government followed Mr Abbott’s suggestion it would reduce the proportion of skilled migrants, leading to more “family migration which ultimately gets more dependent on welfare”.
Mr Morrison said recent rises in the population growth rate were down to variable immigration, with more students, backpackers and temporary workers coming down under.
He disagreed with Mr Abbott’s proposition that immigrants caused crime, saying statistics showed they were less likely to be unemployed and their children did better educationally than the general population.
“The real issue here is that when wages are flat and when people are feeling the pinch, people will line others up for being the reason for this,” he said.