Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Treasurer (Senator Wong) to a question without notice asked by Senator Dean Smith today relating to immigration and rental costs.

This question goes specifically to the issue that the government has been saying that it intends to focus on in relation to the budget—that is, ensuring it drives down inflation. It also goes to what the government has continuously been doing: saying one thing and doing another. It's a very common theme in my contributions to taking note of answers, I'm sad to say. We've just spent the last hour and 10 minutes debating the fact that this government has spent the last year talking about being open and transparent. They're more opaque than a brick. The contradictions—the speaking out of both sides of their mouths—are really quite outrageous. They come into the chamber and make every excuse under the sun. They deflect the problem to here, blaming the previous government.

But in this context, on this particular issue, the government are actually in full control because they control the immigration rates. Senator Wong, in her answer, quite reasonably mentioned the fact that the economy and the immigration system are recovering from COVID-19—quite a reasonable point for Senator Wong to make. But it's this government that is controlling the immigration rate. She can't blame the previous government or anyone else. Has COVID made a contribution to the issues around immigration? Absolutely it did. Is there a process for recovery off the back of that? Of course there is. But there is also another part to what's occurring in the economy, and that's the shortage of housing that exists. Clearly, COVID has contributed to the way people live, to the way that they share accommodation or do not share accommodation—a whole range of those things. But the government is the entity that's controlling immigration into this country and will do so over the next couple of years. A record number of people will be coming into this country—400,000 immigrants this year and 315,000 next year, for a record 715,000 people over the next two years—but it is a number they control. It's got nothing to do with anybody else. It's something that the government controls.

Are there tensions in the economy around labour and things of that nature? Of course there are. One of the themes of the previous motion to take note was housing, housing affordability and the capacity for people to get a home, and it is a big deal. But the government controls the immigration rate, and that was the point of Senator Smith's question in relation to where we are right now. The government will want to deflect and talk about the housing bill. It hasn't built a house yet. Mr Albanese said in 2021 that houses would start to come online in the first five years. He gave a guarantee of the number of houses that would come online in the first five years. We are almost a year into government, and they haven't built a house yet. Not one single foundation has been laid at this point in time. It is not a good start in that sense. If it is so urgent, why have we waited a year for the legislation?

It comes back to the point of the budget and what the budget's supposed to be saying for the future and the issue facing Australians, which is inflation. The Reserve Bank this month said rent inflation is expected to continue to pick up over the next year or so and to add materially to inflation over the forecast period. What's the Reserve Bank going to do if inflation keeps on going up? We just had a surprise 0.25 per cent—perhaps a shot across the government's bows. Now the government is going to continue to contribute to rising inflation through immigration levels that are going to cause housing inflation, which will feed directly into the numbers. So why is the Reserve Bank saying that? That's the point of Senator Smith's question, and the government controls the answers. They can't try to blame other people in relation to this, because they are the government and they are in charge. (Time expired)