Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the One Nation party’s policy would be ‘diabolical’ for the economy, warning it would have real consequences for areas such as aged care, health, the hospitality sector and agriculture. He said this in an ABC Insiders broadcast.
His comments followed the government’s announcement of long-expected changes to immigration rules, under which foreign nationals without valid visas would face new measures requiring them to leave the country. The government has promised to reduce net overseas migration to 245,000 in the current financial year, and to 225,000 in the 2027–28 period. One Nation, meanwhile, is targeting a net-negative number of arrivals over three years.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said on Tuesday at the NSW Liberal state council that he would introduce one of ‘the largest cuts to immigration in Australian history’. A survey by the Sydney Morning Herald showed that 40 per cent of voters believe the 2027–28 target is still too high.
The political debate has also centred on Taylor’s ‘fuel price shield’ policy, which he described as ‘anti-inflationary’. Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers accused Taylor of proposing ‘an unfunded, unlimited policy’. The opposition’s plan involves halving the federal excise on fuel when the two-week average price of oil exceeds 100 US dollars per barrel.
Taylor dismissed Chalmers’s comments at a press conference. He said the opposition would fund the policy through increased revenue from proposed cuts to the federal excise on tobacco, and that the policy would bring relief to Australians at the pump: 15 dollars per tank, or 27 cents per litre. The opposition estimated the policy would cost around 950 million dollars a month, and would be triggered twice in the past five years, during the oil shocks of early 2022 and March of this year.
Albanese was also asked about foreign policy in response to questions. When asked if Australia had plans to join the EU, he said ‘we’re a long way from Europe, of course’. He noted that Australia’s relations also extended to areas where Canada had no presence, such as ASEAN, whose centrality in the region was important, as was the Pacific Islands Forum, where he had been recently. As a priority for Australia in relation to Europe and engagement with the EU, he cited the Australia-EU free trade agreement. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had welcomed the proposal for Canada to become an associate member of the EU.
Speaking on legislation passed in the last sitting, Albanese said it had never been intended to be perfect. He highlighted that the e-Safety Commissioner had already used the enhanced powers to request information from social media organisations, and that these organisations had already been compelled to comply.
