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Transcript and audio link - ABC Radio National Breakfast

Monday 19th July 2010

Click on the link at the bottom of this page to listen to the interview.

EandOE

Subjects: Attacks on political candidates, Newspoll, workplace relations, Coalition population policy – Towards a Productive and Sustainable Population Growth Path for Australia

FRAN KELLY: Just briefly before we get to the issue of immigration, your portfolio area, the Labor candidate in the seat next to yours, the seat of Hughes had his house and campaign office shot at on the weekend. Do you know any more about this?

SCOTT MORRISON: No I don’t I’ve only seen the reports as I’m sure you have and we don’t like to see these things any more than we like to see the fact that a Liberal candidate’s worker in South Australia was assaulted on the campaign trail. So these things are very concerning and have no place in Australian life. I’m sure the police will get to the bottom of it.

FRAN KELLY: Concerning too I’m sure for you today’s Newspoll which has the Coalition trailing significantly but then again Galaxy last night had you at 50/50. Is this a very even contest?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well I have no doubt that the government are the front runner in this. Obviously the Coalition is the underdog, I think that is quite clear but there’s a long way to go and this is a debate and a contest about policy and I think what people are waking up to is that they might have changed leaders but the policies haven’t changed and they might try to echo the Coalition but that is only because they are hollow.

FRAN KELLY: There’s a bit of echoing going on both sides isn’t there? I mean Tony Abbott has now said that he will echo the government, the Labor Government’s industrial relations policies, no change.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well we made it clear that this was a concern at the last election, Labor says they want to move forward but wants to fight the last election campaign. We have made it quite clear all throughout this term, particularly Tony made it clear the other day, that that is an issue that is not an issue and we will work within the framework that this government has put in place.

FRAN KELLY: Yes but for three years or probably six years we have been hearing that unfair dismissal laws are a monkey on small business’ back. You are not going to get that monkey off if you win government?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well I will leave that to Eric Abetz and others to discuss as it is their portfolio but I think what is clear is the Coalition has learnt its lessons from the last election and got the message loud and clear from people. As a modern political party you have to listen to people and I don’t think that’s what this government has done. They haven’t listened to people, they haven’t consulted with people, they say they’ve consulted on the mining tax and spoken to three companies and that’s what we see from this government.

FRAN KELLY: Alright let’s go to issues within your portfolio now. Tony Abbott talking about immigration and population and asylum seeker policy yesterday, he said quote ‘this idea that we owe it to the world to take 180,000 to 300,000 migrants every year is not on’. Now we have had large immigration programs since World War Two. Is that because we owe the world something, surely it is because we needed migrants? It’s not charitable that we take immigration.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well Fran we have never had programs of net overseas migration for 300,000 and there is no universal global right to live in Australia and we can obviously be sovereign in the level of our intake and make sure our intake provides a sustainable population growth past which is what we announced.

FRAN KELLY: And that’s how we assess it every year don’t we? We had a massive surge in migration numbers, a one off surge under the Howard Government for a while there when we needed the skills.

SCOTT MORRISON: We never got anywhere close to the 300,000 this government has peaked at…

FRAN KELLY: No but we got over 180,000.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well 180,000 is a hell of a lot less than 300,000 Fran. What we have got in place now is still the policies that are generating those high levels of net overseas migration which Professor Bob Birrell says will take us to a population of 43.2 million by 2050. So Julia Gillard can echo all she likes but their policy is hollow. Unless they change their policies which they have said they won’t even announce until after the election on this issue then I don’t see how they can be trusted to fix the mess they created.

FRAN KELLY: You could be immigration minister of this country in five weeks time, I’m sure you are mindful of that. How many migrants would Australia take in the first year of an Abbott Government?

SCOTT MORRISON: What we have said is we will set our migration intake based on advice from the independent Productivity Commission who will tell us what is a sustainable rate of population growth. We have committed ourselves to a population cap set by the Productivity Commission and we have committed ourselves that two thirds of our permanent migration intake will be on skills migration. Now they are clear policies, they were announced in April. When we announced these policies Julia Gillard and Tony Burke and a whole bunch of others accused us of everything from economic vandalism to racism. Now they say they agree with us on the eve of an election. I think the public can see through that that it is just election speak.

FRAN KELLY:: What they are saying they agree with are these issues of sustainable population growth, presumedly you support Julia Gillard’s announcement yesterday to put more money into the regions to try to develop more housing options in regional Australia to take some pressure off the big cities.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well this is just moving money around within one initiative Fran. What they need to address…

FRAN KELLY: Is it a good idea though?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well I will let others commentate on that but what they need to do from an immigration point of view is outline whether they plan to be committed on a cap on population growth…

FRAN KELLY: Are you committed to a cap?

SCOTT MORRISON: Yes we are.

FRAN KELLY: What are you capping it at?

SCOTT MORRISON: The independent Productivity Commission would advise that figure Fran…

FRAN KELLY: But it is revised every year as it is now.

SCOTT MORRISON: No it’s not…

FRAN KELLY: Immigration levels are revised.

SCOTT MORRISON: Yes but they are not set within a framework of what is a sustainable rate of population growth. That’s the missing ingredient in how we do these things and that is what we want to change. We want to make sure the Australian people can have confidence that when we set a migration program it has been set to stay within what is a sustainable population growth…

FRAN KELLY: So if they say 300,000 is sustainable you will go with that?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well I don’t think they will say that because I don’t believe it is sustainable. The intergenerational report says 180,000 would get to a population of 36 million so clearly Fran, clearly the levels are going to have to be less that they have been under this government.

FRAN KELLY: Ok both sides seem to agree with that, neither leader supports a big Australia, Scott Morrison thanks very much for joining us.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well Fran can I just make the point they haven’t said they want to cut it…

FRAN KELLY: No, no they said they don’t agree in a big Australia is all I said.

SCOTT MORRISON: They need to stump up with policy.

END

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