Topics: Unemployment numbers, Collapse in living standards under Labor, Immigration

E&OE

KIERAN GILBERT:

The Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor joins me. Thanks for your time, good news that the unemployment rate is down. But does it mean that we have to wait longer for rate cuts?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well of course we all want to see low unemployment, as we've seen for a long time, Kieran, but it's little consolation for Australians who are facing a cost of living crisis, who are struggling to pay their bills, who are having to take on extra work in order to pay their bills, pay their mortgages, which have increased by remarkable amounts. We've seen a 7.5% reduction in Australians' standard of living since Labor came to power. And so low unemployment is good, but we've got a much bigger problem right now, which is that Australians just can't afford the standard of living they've had in the past. And there's clearly no plan to restore that standard of living to where it should be, and where it was before Labor came to power.

KIERAN GILBERT:

It's a bit of a claim to fame, though, for the government isn't it? Over half a million jobs created since they were elected?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, we've seen a population increase of over a million, so you would expect some extra jobs to come along with that kind of population increase. And this is part of the problem, Kieran. Part of the reason why our standard of living has collapsed, is our economy has stagnated. So GDP per capita recession, what does that mean in practice? Australians are experiencing a recession, the economy is going backwards for them. 18 years since we've seen this kind of stagnation outside of the pandemic. And that's a remarkably bad situation that most Australians are facing. They're responding to it in a number of ways. They're responding, first of all, by working harder and taking on second jobs. A record number of people with a second job to try and just make ends meet. They're digging deep into their savings. We've got many small business people who are effectively working in their small business without taking pay. We're hearing that from the software providers, they've never seen anything like this. And they're cutting back on not only discretionary spending, but in some cases, non discretionary spending. And that's a lot of pain being felt by Australians. We saw a record immigration, set of immigration numbers yesterday. Only one house for every - one new house for every four immigrants. We've got a housing crisis, which has been exacerbated by government policy. And these policies are out of whack Kieran, they're just not working. And there's clearly no plan to get us back and restore the standard of living we were used to.

KIERAN GILBERT:

If the unemployment rate, though, does stay at these levels, and the RBA achieves its goal of getting inflation back into the target band of 2 to 3%. That's, that's the definition of a soft landing, isn't it?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, it's not a soft landing, if you've had a collapse in your standard of living. And this is the problem, Kieran. The only thing driving our economy right now is immigration. If you took away immigration, the economy is in deep recession. And so I don't think there's any consolation in any of this for the average Australian family who's working harder, saving less, and with less purchasing power in their pay packets. So there's really no consolation. What we need is a plan, a pathway forward, to restore Australians' standard of living. That means getting industrial relations, right, and that's been heading in the wrong direction. It means aligning immigration policy with housing policy. And that's clearly not the case at the moment. I mean, one new house for every four new Australians? Come on, that's just not working. And you only have to look around Sydney now to see how badly it's not working. So Labor's policies are not aligned with the circumstances and the challenges we face. And Australians are paying a high price for that.

KIERAN GILBERT:

A lot of it comes out of the university sector with international students and so on. It's one of our biggest export markets, isn't it? So it's that balancing act, isn't it? You don't want to smash the tertiary sector and say, reduce the amount of students coming in because it props up so much of our higher education. What's your solution to that?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, can I say this is not about being against immigration, it's about making sure that your immigration levels and your housing levels and the rest of the services and infrastructure you need are aligned. That's what it's about. And we're seeing a housing crisis where not enough new houses are being built at a time when we've got record levels of immigration. Well, that's just not sustainable. It's common sense, this stuff Kieran. It's not complicated. I think most Australians in the suburbs and the regions right across this great country, understand that something's out of whack and it is. You see it in the numbers. We saw it in the numbers that came out yesterday. And I think Labor just doesn't get it. I don't think they ever will because it's just not, they don't see these common sense principles that that I see Australians understanding every day.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Do you think it's a good thing, just finally, we've seen the meeting between Paul Keating and the Chinese foreign minister, the other talks between the PM and the foreign minister with our largest trading partner, is it good that that's back on an even keel, albeit with a couple of niggles here and there with as I say, the Keating meeting? That to one side, do you welcome the fact that those conversations are being had? I know, Mr. Dutton also met with foreign minister Wang Yi.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Yeah, we strongly support a strong trade relationship with China. I mean, our agricultural sector, our resources sector, you're talking about great export sectors. I mean, they're phenomenal export sectors for this country, and we all benefit from them. And China has been an enormously important trading partner for those sectors for particularly the last couple of decades, and will continue to be and should be, we should continue to nurture that. But we always need to make sure that we set the line in the sand as to what is acceptable and what's not. And as long as Labor's doing that, we'll always support strengthening those trade relationships, Kieran, that is a that is a good thing. And it shouldn't be intermingled with other issues around immigration. I mean, immigration is an issue about getting the balance right. And making sure that Australians accept a strong immigration policy that we've always had because it is aligned with the housing we have available in the services we have available.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor, appreciate your time, as always, we'll talk to you soon.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Good on you Kieran, thanks for having me.

ENDS.