Migration program numbers yet to be announced
The government struggling to keep a lid on its hubris - at times failing.
JASON CLARE, EDUCATION MINISTER: Thank you for your focus on education and your focus on fairness and also thank-you for your support for the legislation to cut student debt by 20 per cent. 20 per cent is a big cut. It's not as big as 33 per cent, that's how much the Australian people cut the number of Liberal MPs in the chamber at the election.
JACOB GREBER: And the opposition is still stuck in the last war. With old stagers like Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack attempting to seize the limelight - leading the Coalition onto slippery ground with demands to end net zero.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK, NATIONALS MP: I know we're not in government. Chris Bowen might have a mandate to govern Australia along with Labor, but they don't have a mandate to ruin regional Australia.
MATT KEAN, CHAIR, CLIMATE CHANGE AUTHORITY: Political stunts are no substitute for real policies and what you are seeing today is a political stunt.
JACOB GREBER: The former NSW treasurer and Liberal Matt Kean voicing the views of moderate Coalition MPs unwilling to give up on strong climate policy.
MATT KEAN: Those arguing against this transition are actually arguing for higher electricity prices for the mums and dads and businesses of Australia. They're arguing for less investment in this country, they're arguing for less jobs and a less prosperous future.
JACOB GREBER: Labor is having no end of fun over the Coalition's troubled union.
CHRIS BOWEN, CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY MINISTER: Appointing Senator Canavan to review net zero is a bit like putting Coldplay in control of kiss cam. It doesn't necessarily lead to a happy marriage.
JACOB GREBER: Bad gags aside, the Coalition's impotence is a double-edged sword giving the government enormous latitude but it also risks triggering over-confidence.
Such as in immigration, which was one of the biggest fights of the election.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Do you concede they got a bit too high?
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: I'll make this point, there were only two times that more than nine million visas were issued in any one year in Australia. Both times Peter Dutton was the minister.
JACOB GREBER: Largely lost in that political debate is the fact that the government still hasn't announced a skilled migration quota for this financial year.
ABUL RIZVI, FMR DEPUTY SECRETARY, DEPT OF IMMIGRATION: The migration program numbers are usually announced with the budget, because the immigration program affects both the revenue side of the budget, as well as the expenses side of the budget. This year, in the March budget, they weren't announced.
JACOB GREBER: While the budget was early this year, the lack of detail since from the government is highly unusual.
ABUL RIZVI: I cannot remember a year when the government did not announce the migration program before the migration program year started.
JACOB GREBER: Abul Rizvi is a former senior immigration department official. He says the wave of students and working holidaymakers that have flooded in after the pandemic are now applying for permanent migration leaving Labor with difficult choices between raising overall immigration or capping partner visa numbers, including for Australian citizens who marry foreigners.
ABUL RIZVI: If they did manage the partner visas on a demand driven basis and left the skill stream more or less as it is at the moment, they would be looking at a migration program over around 230,000, 240,000 for the next couple of years.
That would be the highest migration program in our history, by a long, long way.
JACOB GREBER: Another option is to cannibalise the skilled migration program to make way for the backlog which business fears would worsen workforce shortages across government priorities like housing, healthcare and clean energy.
INNES WILLOX, AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP: If the government were to do that, it would be a disaster. It would be a disaster for the economy as a whole. It would be a disaster for business.
JACOB GREBER: A spokesman for Immigration Minister Tony Burke told 7:30 the government is 'managing applications in line with the level from the previous year and will have more to announce'.
INNES WILLOX: We would hope that the government is able to provide some clarity sooner rather than later around how the program will work this year.
JACOB GREBER: Labor's obfuscation has consequences for states as well who are still awaiting their annual migration quotas.
Next month the Productivity Commission will release a report on workforce skills in time for Jim Chalmers' reform roundtable including questions about how employers access talent overseas.
INNES WILLOX: You'd have to expect that we will need to bring in some labour if we're to achieve the targets of the government set of building 1.2 million houses. We're not on track to do that.
JACOB GREBER: Whether it's on challenging issues of housing, immigration or the budget, Labor is benefiting from a lack of heavy scrutiny.
With a few notable exceptions such as the government's campaign claim that visits to GPs will be free for most people by the end of the decade.
MELISSA MCINTOSH, LIBERAL MP: Isn't it the case that Australians both need both their Medicare card and their credit card to get the healthcare they need under Labor
JACOB GREBER: The fact is, the toughest political pressure is not coming from the opposition but from within Labor and the crossbench particularly on Gaza.
SOPHIE SCAMPS, INDEPENDENT MP: When will Australia be prepared to recognise Palestine as a state?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: I share the distress that people around the world would feel when they look at young Mohammed, one-year old. He is not a threat to the state of Israel nor is he someone who can be seen to be a fighter for Hamas.
JACOB GREBER: Despite increasing pressure, the Prime Minister is not yet willing to recognise Palestine.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: The timing of a decision to recognise the state of Palestine will be determined by whether that decision advances the realisation of that objective. It must be more than a gesture.
JACOB GREBER: With France moving towards recognition and other leaders like Keir Starmer in the UK facing internal pressure to act, the Prime Minister may just be waiting for the right time.
With an opposition struggling to put the political heat on the government, the only real political pressure the Prime Minister is facing is from the crossbench and within his own side especially on Gaza.
Political editor Jacob Greber with more.
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