KEY POINTS:
- Opposition leader Peter Dutton has delivered his second budget reply.
- Mr Dutton has warned that poorly managed migration will deepen Australia's housing crisis.
- He accused Labor of avoiding tough decisions to help families.
Peter Dutton has warned the coming wave of migration will worsen Australia's housing and cost-of-living crises, accusing the Albanese government of stealthily implementing a "big Australia policy".
Delivering his second budget reply on Thursday evening, Mr Dutton also pledged to during sports matches, and commit $5 million to make treatment more affordable for conditions affecting women if the Coalition wins the next election.
“The Albanese government’s big Australia approach will make the cost-of-living crisis and inflation worse,” he said.
Speaking the morning after his speech, Mr Dutton described migration as one of "the firm pillars" underpinning Australia's success, but warned the biggest intake in the nation's history was being done "in an unplanned way".
Coalition leader Peter Dutton is greeted by his wife Kirilly Dutton, after delivering his budget reply speech. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
But Mr Dutton insisted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was quietly introducing a "big Australia policy" by planning for 1.5 million arrivals over the next five years.
"[That] wasn't something he announced [before] the last election ... We haven't seen numbers of this magnitude," he said.
"It's the lack of planning, particularly in the period of a housing crisis, that is particularly concerning."
"We have Australians who can't find rental accommodation, people are sitting in congestion every morning, every afternoon, going to work, picking their kids up, dropping them off to sport," he told reporters on Friday.
"If we're going to bring in more people than the entire population of Adelaide, there needs to be some planning."
Peter Dutton accused the Albanese government of quietly implementing a "big Australia policy". Source: AAP / Jono Searle
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles described the Coalition's position as the "height of hypocrisy", given its 2019 population would hit 27 million.
"They were proposing that there be a bigger Australia than what we've faced now," he said.
Mr Marles also framed the Coalition and the Greens as roadblocks to alleviating the housing crisis, with Labor still lacking the numbers to pass its Housing Australia Future Fund through the Senate.
Peter Dutton says budget hurts families
While the opposition backed some budget measures, such as tripling the bulk billing incentive and expanding single-parent payments, Mr Dutton said families had received little support.
"The budget hurts working Australians. Worse, it risks creating a generation of working poor Australians," he said on Thursday.
Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said the government had failed to tackle inflation.
"Unless you slay that dragon, well, essentially you're not governing. You're not doing your job," she told ABC TV on Friday.
"If you're governing for all Australians, you have to tackle the problem at the source, not simply the symptoms. The only way to do that is to bring down inflation."
Mr Dutton said increasing overseas migration by 1.5 million people across the next five years would fuel a housing and rental crisis.
"Cities, towns and suburbs are already choked with congestion, yet in this budget - as it did in the last - the government is cutting infrastructure spending already announced," he said.
He doubled down on claims families with children and a mortgage would be $25,000 worse off under the government and said power bills would still rise despite measures in the budget providing energy relief.
"Very few Australians can say they are better off today than they were 12 months ago when Labor was elected," he said.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivers his post-budget address at the National Press Club in Canberra. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
"We've been built on the back of the migrant story and we want that to continue ... but if you don't manage your migration intake, then it can actually do economic harm rather than good," she said.
Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said Mr Dutton's address rehashed old ideas rejected by voters at the last election.
"He's come back into the parliament with the same old ideas and the same old approach instead of trying to unify the country and make them feel confident about the future," he said.
The budget contained $14.6 billion in cost-of-living relief measures, including a $40-per-week increase in welfare payments for those on JobSeeker - a measure the Coalition will oppose.
Instead, Mr Dutton said there should be an increase in the income-free threshold, arguing people would be able to earn more.
"The government has taken decisions - and avoided others - which has made inflation higher than it needs to be," he said.
