Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak today to call out the hypocrisy of the Labor and Greens parties, who are pursuing a big Australia policy. We'll have more than 600,000 immigrants arrive in the next two years. That is going to put a lot of pressure on carbon emissions, household rents and, of course, the cost of living. Why should Australians have to suffer? Seventy-five per cent of these immigrants are students who go to universities. The groups who will profit from this include universities, who don't have to pay tax on their profits from foreign students. I think that's unfair given that foreign students add to the demand side of the economy. They use infrastructure paid for by the taxes of working Australians.

I think Labor and the Greens need to reduce the population if they are serious about reducing emissions, serious about reducing the cost of living and serious about reducing rents. At this stage all they're doing is helping the universities as well as the big end of town corporations who are using immigrant labour to undercut the wage market and create a bigger market size. So, Labor, it's time to stop your hypocrisy if you're serious about cutting emissions. Today we passed a bill that is going to stick a carbon tax on Australian industry when other offshore countries don't have a carbon tax. It's going to drive many of those industries offshore. How about you look after the people here in Australia first, in the small end of town and the battlers and the Australian workers, rather than the big end of town who are only transferring many of their profits offshore.