Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has unveiled a major policy shift, proposing tighter restrictions on welfare access for new migrants and a significant reduction in Australia’s migration intake as part of a broader election pitch focused on housing affordability and cost-of-living pressures.
In his first budget-in-reply speech, Taylor argued that Australia’s welfare system should prioritise citizens, saying the system must “back the people who built it, paid for it and rely on it, first.”
“Our system should back the people who built it, paid for it and rely on it, first,” he said.
Under the Coalition proposal, new migrants would be barred from accessing key federal welfare payments, including the age pension and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), until they become Australian citizens. Existing recipients would be grandfathered under the plan.
Taylor said the Coalition’s approach was about “putting Australians first”, and accused the Labor government of misplaced priorities in its budget decisions.
“What we’re seeing in this budget and more generally is the Labor Party slashing programs to hardworking Aussies,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“We think that is the wrong priority and we need to get the priorities right. Australians should come first.”
The Coalition is also proposing to dramatically reduce net overseas migration, linking intake levels to housing supply. Under the plan, migration would be capped at roughly the number of homes built in the previous year.
Last financial year, about 175,000 homes were constructed, which analysts say could imply a significant reduction from current migration levels if the policy were applied immediately.
Net overseas migration currently includes permanent arrivals as well as temporary entrants such as international students, with the federal budget forecasting 295,000 arrivals this financial year, easing to 225,000 by 2027–28.
Taylor also signalled the Coalition would unwind Labor’s housing-related tax changes, including restrictions to negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions, which he described as an “assault on aspiration.”
“We’ll do what is necessary to get rid of the taxes,” he said.
“We’re going to fight even if it gets through the parliament.”
Labor has defended its reforms as necessary to improve intergenerational equity and support first-home buyers, arguing the measures will shift housing away from investors and towards owner-occupiers.
The Coalition, however, says the policies risk discouraging investment and failing to address underlying supply constraints.
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