Murray Olds: Australian correspondent on Australia's opposition planning to restrict welfare for foreigners

Over in Australia, opposition leader Angus Taylor has confirmed the coalition will restrict  the availability of welfare to foreigners if they win the next election.

Taylor is set to deliver his first budget reply speech later this evening, and he's unveiled cuts will be made to the migrant intake in order to reduce housing pressures.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds explained why this turn won't appeal to younger voters. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murray Olds are Australian correspondence with us.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hello muz, good afternoon, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
So what do you make of Angus Taylor? Then?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Yeah, look it's just it's fascinating, really and truly the
opposition isn't quite sure what to do. We had the
Shadow Treasure on last Sunday on national television saying he
hated one nation was toxic. The Angus Taylor he has
to treat a finer line if you like, because, let's

(00:28):
face it, look what happened in Farah. The right wing
these days, the conservative side of politics is owned by
Pauline Hanson. What does Angus Taylor do? Well, Okay, he's
come out. He's pinched a lot of Pauline Hanson's policies.
For example, the migrant intake in Australia will be tied
to the number of homes in this country built the
previous financial year. For example, I mean after COVID five

(00:52):
hundred and fifty thousand people arrived in the twelve months
when COVID finished. Now that's a heck of a lot
of people. It's double what would be that perhaps the
normal intake. So he's having to tread a line, Okay,
migration has to be capped. They don't like the Paris
Climate Accord, for example. For Labor, it's interesting what Labor

(01:13):
is doing is saying we had to rebalance the budget. Yes,
we told you know, we've broken election promises. We are
unapologetic though, because what we're trying to do is give
young people the leg up. Guess who votes for Labor,
Heather young people. They don't vote for Angus Taylor, won't
vote for Pauline Hanson in a blue fit. They're going
to vote Labor or Greens or independence. And so it's

(01:35):
a political wedge, Angus for Angus Taylor. Labour's got ninety
four seats in the Parliment. It's a long road back
and how they navigate that road is going to be
absolutely fascinating.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Now, listen, run me through this debate about how to
respond to the murder of that.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Little girl in our Yeah, it's bloody horrible, right, So
it's come down now, because don't forget, this child and
this little girl's mother were both living in the most
appalling and squalid conditions you can imagine. Both mum and
the child had been notified to authorities that each was
at risk. Right, So it's devolving into an argument between

(02:17):
the welfare risk to women and children, and the risk
is exceptionally high, higher than any other population cohort in Australia,
and you had to balance out against the cultural expectations.
Now up till now, up until yesterday, in fact, when
the Northern Territory government changed the rules, the government changed

(02:38):
legislation which basically heather puts the safety of children as
the primary consideration. Right up until now, there's been this
kind of loosely nationally recognized cultural imperative that says an
Indigenous child removed for safety reasons in an ideal world

(02:59):
will be placed with an Indigenous family for cultural reasons.
Now that doesn't always work. There's not always an appropriate
indigenous family member available, nor a foster Indigenous person. And
so what they've done in the Northern Territory say listen,
enough's enough, we're going to stop this. You can't have
five year old children being abducted from a bloody home
that's probably home to about fifteen twenty people, most of

(03:23):
them have been drinking. It's an all too common problem
that all of a sudden has made itself a national
headline because of this child's tragic death. Wasn't as though
they didn't know it.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
There should be a slam dunk argument. I mean, I
know it should truly surely a child safety Trump's everything,
including of.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Course yes, but you know you've got any number of
Indigenous organizations here saying no, no, no, you can't have
this kind of white privileged sort of argument thing. And
sadly that's what has come to. It should be a
slam dunk. The safety of a five year old girl.
She should be removed from that because the guy who

(04:02):
allegedly sexually assaulted and murdered her, he'd been out of
jail for five minutes, right, he's turned up was he wanted?
Who knows but the authorities in the Northern Territory. So
we can't keep repeating the same problems. Luckily, luckily most
of the time, most of the time, it doesn't end
up with the death of a little girl five years old.
I mean, it's tragedy everywhere you look. There's no easy

(04:25):
answers either federal the Northern Territory government says, you know what,
We've changed the rules as of Wednesday this week, Mas.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
I appreciate you running us through that. Thank you, mate.
Hard to hear, but worth listening to Murray Olds Australia Correspondents.
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