Di Natale backs Abbott’s call for debate on migrant intake

The Greens leader has backed Tony Abbott’s call for a discussion on reducing Australia’s migrant intake.

Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale. Picture: AFP

Richard Di Natale has backed Tony Abbott’s call for a discussion on reducing Australia’s migrant intake, with the Greens leader ­rejecting the argument a growing population is an important driver of economic growth.

Addressing the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday, where he backed a new publicly funded “people’s bank”, the under-fire leader said the Greens would be “very happy” to have a debate on immigration levels, adding it was important Australia accounted for its “environmental limits”.

“The notion that we need a big Australia based on economic drivers is not one we support. Often this is an argument that is run by the business community,” he said.

Senator Di Natale attempted to distance himself from the former prime minister’s crusade to halve immigration levels but acknowledged the substance of the argument was worthy.

“I don't buy into the debate that Tony Abbott is trying to run at the moment. He is not having a debate about population, he is having a debate about the leadership of the Liberal Party. It is not a sophisticated debate about immigration,” Senator Di Natale said.

“We are very happy to have that debate but let’s not have it in an environment when what is ­actually happening is a proxy war between the Prime Minister and the former prime minister.”

Mr Abbott yesterday hit back at Harvard University cities expert Edward Glaeser, who argued Sydney and Melbourne had an “extraordinary capacity to grow”.

“I suspect the good professor hasn’t been in Sydney or Melbourne traffic jams recently and hasn’t been trying to buy property in Sydney and Melbourne ­recently,” Mr Abbott told 2GB.

“At one level we have more land than any other country but at another level we have got far too many people plonking into Sydney and Melbourne for our own good.

“We are an immigrant country and that is a good thing, but that doesn’t mean, for the benefit of Australians here now, we shouldn’t very significantly slowdown the rate of immigration at least until infrastructure and integration have caught up.”

Senator Di Natale, who has come under pressure following poor results in the Batman by-election and the Tasmanian election, rejected criticisms he had tried to move the party to the centre and make it more mainstream.

“I have never used those words,” he said. “A year ago I stood here and a year ago I talked about, with my colleagues, the need for a people’s bank. We floated that idea a year ago. A year ago we raised the prospect of universal basic ­income.”

He said the party had the responsibility to negotiate with the Liberal Party on legislation despite potential electoral impacts. “If you have got a piece of legislation that you think you can improve, you have a responsibility as legislators to do that,” he said.