Murray Olds: Australia correspondent on Labour party at lowest polling levels since election, exceeding migrant intake during housing crisis, Greens push Reserve Bank to cut interest rates

Australia’s Labour party has fallen to its lowest level since the election in the latest poll. 

Meanwhile, migrant intake has blown forecasts, set to exceed 400,000. 

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has condemned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to manage population growth during a housing crisis. 

Australia correspondent Murray Olds tells Mike Hosking this has added to the government’s markdown in opinion polls. 

Plus, the Greens have gone feral in a push to force the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
That's the Tasman hoar make Murray holds back with this.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Morning mate, Michael, very good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
And I would imagine that Elbaneze would like to be
within the Quad, within the heavyweights of the global community
while he watches his popularity numbers plummet, like.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Indeed the Quad meeting in Delaware, Joe Biden's I guess
his final appearance is the leader of the Quad Japan, Australia,
India and the United States. And look, it's a photo
opportunity for a prime minister who's under pressure. It doesn't
hurt your chances. I wouldn't have thought to be photographed

(00:35):
with the leaders of three major international democracies, including the
president of the United States. The hot mic moment, well,
I mean, I think it's probably bleedingly obvious to everybody
who's got half a brain. What Joe Biden said about
China is absolutely crystal clear. Of course, China's looking at

(00:56):
the Quad and thinking what's it going to mean for
us in the years ahead. Joe Biden's a big fan
of the Quad, so to Albanizi, and until we hear otherwise,
I guess Peter Dutton is as well. I know a
lot of labor leaders over here, Paul Keating, Bob Carr
and the like, they're all furiously anti Quad. They're anti
orcas they say, China is the big player in our

(01:18):
backyard and we should cut our apron strings that tire
us to Washington. That's not going to happen either. So look,
it's interesting the Quad. Albanzi took the chance to go
and be photographed with the president, but he's got problems
back at home as you, as you mentioned Mike exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
So what see. It seems to me that you've got
the economy, the constant living thing. You've got your Reserve
Bank meeting this week. My sense of it as they're
not going to cut yet. So you've got economic problems.
You have unemployment numbers come out the other day they
were steady in the reasonable levels. But you've got this
migration thing whereby and I suppose it's your own fault
for being popular, people want to flood into the country.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Quite a lot of talking points in that long question
of yours, and I mean tick tick tech right across
the border. I mean, let's look at the latest opinion poll.
To start with labors that are at the lowest point
in terms of news poll for almost twelve months thirty
one percent, the Coalition thirty eight percent. When you strip

(02:16):
out all the other bits and pieces, and you know
we have preferential voting over here, so your second preferences count.
It's fifty to fifty, so too close to call. If
we had we had an election this weekend, you'd probably
have Labor over the line. FA's the support of the Greens,
so it's extremely tight for Albanezi. And as you say, immigration,
the whole business of Palestinian visas, and of course the

(02:39):
housing stink and that is just enormous and that's really
marked down the Labor government here. But Labours and a
bind Mike, as you know, we can't do anything without
the support of either the Coalition or the Greens, and
both those two other parties miraculously have lined up politically
to oppose what Labour wants to do. Now, the Greens
on the week end have come out and said listen,

(03:01):
we will back your support a big a partner. We
will support your plan to reform the Reserve Bank of
Australia by introducing a second board with exclusive control of
a monetary policy, but on the condition that if the
Reserve Bank does not move tomorrow and cut interest rates.
The government steps in, and it has this power legislatively

(03:23):
it can step in and unilaterally cut rates. Well, I
mean that's just pining the sky stuff from the weirdos
in the Greens. I mean, Labour's never going to do that,
and Dunton never would either. So Labour's in a rock
at a hard place. The numbers are very very poor
for labor, but politically it's jammed and there's not a
hell of a lot albities you can do. And there's

(03:43):
no way known the Reserve Bank is going to be
forced by the government to cut rates.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Tomorrow, and nor should they because of course they're independent
and they should be independent. That's why you have independent organizations.
So and it increase of three hundred and eighty eight thousand,
is there any sort of agreement as to wat's an
acceptable uber and water isn't.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
No, It depends that you talk to on any day
of the week. I mean, you know net three eighty
eight was at four hundred and fifty last year? Does
the coalution want two hundred and twenty? Look, it's they're
just numbers plucked out of the air thrown against you know,
a spitboard, and it just depends who you talk to.
For political purposes, the Coalition is howling from the rooftops.

(04:23):
Labor is weak, labor is pathetic. Labour's letting too many people.
And look at the clog roads. You can't get a house,
you can't get a rental. But the other side of that,
of course, is that foreign students, which are the overwhelming
number of migrants here. Foreign students contribute forty billion dollars
to the Australian economy billion amazing. And the argument there,

(04:43):
of course goes will hang on a second. If we've
got all these foreign students coming in, what about Ossie kids.
Ossi kids pay a fraction of the price for their degrees.
It's a big business proposition for our universities over here.
So the government is damned if you do, damned if
you don't. I mean, who wants to be who wants
to be a politician?

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Exactly. I was reading something in the Sydney Morning Hero
of the weekend. They were doing average incomes required to
buy houses and certain parts of Sydney, and I mean,
admittedly they were nicer parts of Sydney, but you're needing
a wage of half a million dollars and that's you know,
for your out of the question.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
I mean, you know, primary teachers are getting one hundred
thousand dollars a year, police officers, one hundred and ten
nurses eighty nine ninety thousand dollars. I mean, hello, who
can afford on those wages to buy a home in Sydney.
It's just ridiculous. But what do you do? How do
you fix that? And the other thing I thought you
might like. Friday afternoon, after we spoke last Friday in

(05:38):
the Senate, some figures were tabled about the visa question
with the Palestinians who have been granted visas to come
to Australia. The opposition's been screaming, oh, they've been allowed
and they're going to they haven't been vetted properly, blah
blah blah. You know who's coming here, don't you? Women
and children? Yes, and ASIO, which is the domestic spy

(05:58):
service we have here in Australia. It stood up in
the Senate and said, listen, can you just dial down
the hysterics. Of course we are checking these people. Of
course we are checking their bona Fridays, they go through
eight separate lots of checks. So on the opposition side,
can you shut up because all you're doing is making
people anxious out in the suburbs.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Exactly, all right, mat go, well we'll catch up Mike Wednesday,
Murray Olds across the Tasman.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
By the way.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
The other thing I read about housing in Australia over
the weekend, the share of interest only lones is hit
twenty percent, twenty plus percent for the June quarter. That's
the highest level since twenty nineteen. Counteracted a little bit.
A lot of its investors and often people who buy
you know, Rendal Holmes investment homes whatever, do it on
an interest free only. But they worry that there's a
pressure building up in the old housing landscape that might

(06:42):
come back and bite them in the bump.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
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Speaker 1 (06:47):
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