Tony Abbott calls on Peter Dutton to cut Australia’s migration intake

Tony Abbott wants fewer migrants coming into Australia fearing a further stall in wages and loss in jobs for born Aussies.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott addresses the Sydney Institute. Picture: AAP

Tony Abbott has ramped up pressure on the Turnbull government to accept a drastic cut to the nation’s migration levels, saying Immigration Minister Peter Dutton could “manage numbers down quite quickly” to help ease local job market and housing affordability pressures.

The former Liberal prime minister last night made reducing immigration the main focus of his remedy to improve Australian livelihoods in an address to the Sydney Institute.

While giving credit to Mr Dutton for flagging last week that the immigration intake should be reviewed, Mr Abbott insisted reducing the current level from 190,000 to 110,000 a year was necessary “at least until infrastructure, housing stock and integration has better caught up”.

Dismissing any suggestion from political opponents that his proposal might be xenophobic or racist, Mr Abbott said scaling back immigration was the government’s “duty” to its citizens.

While he favoured a “bigger Australia” in the longer term, this did not rule out short-term cuts in the national interest for economic growth.

In his speech, parts of which were released in advance, the former prime minister said “something has gone badly wrong” with the immigration intake when only 30 per cent were proficient in English.

At the same time, he said jobs were harder to find because more foreigners were taking those available. Local wages remained static and the high immigration rates concentrated in cities had forced up house prices.

 

“My issue is not immigration, it’s the rate of immigration at a time of stagnant wages, clogged infrastructure, soaring house ­prices, and in Melbourne at least, ethnic gangs that are testing the resolve of police,” he said.

“It’s a basic law of economics that increasing the supply of labour depresses wages, and that increasing demand for housing boosts price.”

Mr Abbott said the “unreality” of political discourse was that no one until Mr Dutton’s comments last week was prepared to raise immigration as an issue solely in the control of the federal government.

Answering questions afterwards, Mr Abbott said Mr Dutton could “manage numbers down” quickly but said it could take years before structural changes allowed a return to increased migration.

Mr Dutton declined to comment beyond remarks made last week when he acknowledged problems caused by the concentration of migrants around Sydney and Melbourne, and spoke against bringing migrants who were “going to be a burden”.

Population expert Bob Birrell said Mr Abbott had a “powerful case” that could help the government ease economic pressures.

Mr Birrell, a former Monash University professor and now head of the Australian Population Research Institute, said the government had already acted to reduce skilled migration levels by a third but the “numerical terms” were still unclear.

He said integration was “undoubtedly a problem” when a large number of migrants on the skilled program could not get managerial positions.

Mr Birrell said that Mr Abbott had been consistent in his calls for reduced immigration even if his position was “heavily political”.