NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian demurred on migrant debate

Senior NSW ministers urged Premier Gladys Berejiklian last year to enter the immigration debate.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian dismissed a push by ­senior ministers last year that she enter the immigration debate and take the issue up with the federal government because of concerns about the effect on housing ­afford­ability.

The Australian has learnt that in cabinet discussions Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, Education Minister Rob Stokes and Finance Minister Victor Dominello all ­advocated Ms ­Berejiklian taking on the immigration issue as part of the government’s housing ­affordability package.

But the Premier ­expressed concerns that any call for lower immigration and a population policy by the state government may look like racism on her part. She said she did not want to push for lower immigration, several sources said.

Ms Berejiklian declined to comment on the cabinet discussion yesterday, which preceded an announcement of a rolling out of more widespread first-home owner grants.

Opposition Leader Luke Foley told The Weekend Australian that there needed to be a national population policy that included the ­involvement of the states, and ­predicted this would bring down immigration.

Ministers were spooked at the weekend when Mr Foley moved on the agenda, in faint echoes of former Labor premier Bob Carr’s environmentally based “Sydney is full” ­pronouncement.

“I think if you had the state governments at the table with the commonwealth — rather than the commonwealth setting the ­migrant intake number on its own — I suspect the number (of ­immigrants) would come down a bit because the perspective of the states about the strained infrastructure in our larger cities would become a much bigger factor than it is now,” Mr Foley told The Weekend Australian.

“The federal government reaps the benefits (of higher ­immigration through tax revenue) but the state governments have to pay the cost.”

Ms Berejiklian refused yesterday to back Mr Foley’s call.

“The last time a Labor leader talked about these issues, it resulted in years of no infrastructure being built and cancelled projects,’’ she said.

“Labor spent 16 years of not building the infrastructure our state needs, and we have been playing catch-up ever since.”

Mr Foley’s comments followed a speech last month by federal MP and former prime minister Tony Abbott who called for the annual immigration ­intake to be reduced from 190,000 to 110,000.

Mr Abbott tweeted yesterday: “It’s economics 101 that more supply means downward pressure on prices and more demand means upward pressure.

“Very high immigration means stagnant wages and unaffordable housing. That’s why the numbers need to be scaled back now. We shouldn’t be afraid of the debate.”

Mr Stokes has complained of a lack of clarity from the federal government over population policy, saying “there’s no overarching narrative”.