Federal election 2016: Turnbull stands by Dutton on refugees

Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton have stood firm in their attack against Labor’s ‘political’ plan to double the refugee intake.

Malcolm Turnbull welcomed by workers at the Omni Tanker manufacturing plant in the Sydney electorate of Macarthur.

Malcolm Turnbull and his Immig­ration Minister Peter ­Dutton have stood firm in their attack against Labor’s “political” plan to double the refugee intake, insisting the significant increase would put a “strain” on the ­nation’s economy.

Declaring the immigration system a “very serious issue”, the Prime Minister dismissed concerns raised by migrant families, refugee advocates and opposition MPs about the tone set by the government after Mr Dutton controversially claimed “innum­erate and illiterate” refugees would take Australian jobs under a bolstered humanitarian prog­ram.

“There’s no point bringing people in and forgetting about them, which is what a lot of other countries do,” Mr Turnbull said as he toured a business in southwest Sydney.

“We believe we’ve got the balance right. We believe it’s generous. We think what Labor is proposing is too much. It will strain the system both in terms of giving good settlement services and in terms of the budget.”

Mr Turnbull claimed Labor and the Greens had given “no thought” to the difficulty and cost of integrating between 27,000 and 50,000 people — the respective numbers both parties want to eventually settle under an increased humanitarian program.

The government accepts 13,750 refugees annually and that number will lift to 18,750 in 2018-19. It has also committed to settling an extra 12,000 refugees from the Syrian conflict zone, which it estimates will cost $827.4 million over four years.

“Australians expect their government and their prime minister to manage that process well and that is what we are doing. What Labor is proposing is just polit­ical,” Mr Turnbull said, adding that he was one of the “great admirer­s” of the country’s different religions, races and cultures.

Warning of the terrorism threats that softer borders could create­, Mr Dutton defended his comments and called for an “honest­” discussion on the issue.

“That’s what the Australian people want, and that’s why I’m not going to stand back from what I said. I believe in what I said,” Mr Dutton told Sydney radio station 2GB. “Bill Shorten doesn’t want to talk about this 27,000 figure but he needs to explain what’s happening. We have some problems in this country.”

The Opposition Leader ­defended the cost of Labor’s plan to increase the refugee intake. “We costed our policies,’’ he said.

“The Greens are out there promising everything to everybody. But our policy in terms of refugees is costed and we submitted it to the Parliamentary Budget Office so I can guarantee that.’’

Mr Shorten continued his ­attack on the government, ­accusing Mr Dutton of demonising migrants. “And Malcolm Turnbull backed in Peter Dutton over the great immigration history of this country.

“We know why they’re talking about this every day. We understand why they’re doing it. What they want to do is say that Labor doesn’t have a strong policy to stop boats coming to Australia and they want to undermine the perception of our commitment to regional processing.

“They are lying. ‘’

Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie called for Mr Dutton’s immediate resignation, labelling his comments “racist” and “disgusting”.

“If Peter Dutton won’t resign, then … Malcolm Turnbull has to step up and sack him. If Turnbull doesn’t, it makes him every bit has bad as Dutton,” he said.

“We can do better than this kind of reckless fearmongering.”