SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: The Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, joins me now, fresh from the chamber. Congratulations on your speech and welcome back to 7.30.SARAH FERGUSON: I want to start with immigration. Sky called it "massive". What you have announced is a 25 per cent cut to Australia's migration intake. Where in the system will those cuts be?
PETER DUTTON: We've said that we want to prioritise skills, particularly those with skills who can help build houses and help in the construction sector because we have an 11-year low in building approvals at the moment. SARAH FERGUSON: That does mean cutting some people's opportunities to come here in the critical skills section.
Now we have 15 million people in Australia of working age with many and varied skills, and many who want to come back into the workforce part-time. If it's beyond the wit of big business in this country to train them up or provide opportunity for them to fill some of those skills that you're talking about, then I think we've got bigger problems than we realise.SARAH FERGUSON: But we're talking about people overseas.
But in the end, you have to make tough decisions, you're right and my decision is to prioritise Australians for housing in our country because we've got people living in tents, we have got people living in cars. I want to see them in housing. SARAH FERGUSON: So when the Real Estate Institute quotes those figures, are they wrong that only 4 per cent of international students are in the private rental market?SARAH FERGUSON: For many complex reasons, mostly to do with supply but let's just stay with this issue for a moment. I just want to ask, go back to the question that I asked you.
PETER DUTTON: We have a less productive economy if we've got people sleeping in tents and in cars and homelessness is at a record high under this government.We've got pensioners who can't find rental accommodation and that is not an acceptable situation morally, socially, or economically for our country and it's not one that I would abide as prime minister.
SARAH FERGUSON: Let's move on to some of the other points that you were making this evening and one of them, crucially, is about spending and has been about spending for some time. You are critical of the Government's budget and the amount of money that it adds to spending next year. Will you now detail what specific cuts you're going to do to rein in government spending?
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