Taylor says plan fails to cap immigration to housing, infrastructure supply
Burke appeared on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s 7.30 program on Thursday evening, hours after the immigration plan was released, and was asked “what took you so long” given he was originally scheduled to deliver the policy address at the National Press Club six weeks earlier.
He said the Labor party had spent the time “working through all the policy issues” and that navigating the visa system was complex.
Burke suggested the Coalition bore responsibility for the delay, saying the opposition “might have more of an appetite for legislation” on immigration.
In his policy defense, Burke argued that “every part of the economy is affected by immigration these days for Australia.” He said the government was trying to address housing supply concerns “in a way that has the softest landing for the economy.”
Burke added that while housing supply was “not immigration’s fault,” immigration “needs to be part of the answer.”
Opposition leader Angus Taylor, who also appeared on 7.30, said the Coalition had “laid out what we needed as preconditions in order to be able to work with the government and they couldn’t meet the preconditions.”
Taylor criticized the substance of the plan, saying “the numbers are too high and what we’ve seen from the government today is no cut to the numbers.”
He added that “we are a great immigrant nation” but argued “immigration needs to be capped based on the housing supply, the infrastructure, the services we have, and that has not been the case in recent years.”
The exchange came the same day the government released the details of its immigration plan, which had been anticipated since Burke’s National Press Club address was scheduled six weeks earlier. Labor’s framing emphasized a “softest landing” for the economy, while Taylor and the Coalition emphasized a numerical cap tied to housing supply and infrastructure capacity.