Interview with Chris Kenny on News24

Chris Kenny:

Let's go back down to Canberra and catch up with the Shadow Housing Minister, Andrew Bragg. Thanks for joining us, Andrew. Big day for you. You spoke at the National Press Club. Big focus on immigration. Your leader, Angus Taylor, has been very reluctant to put numbers on how much a Coalition government would reduce immigration numbers, but you've done that today. Effectively about what, 45,000 fewer people a year than the Labor government is shooting for?

Senator Bragg:

Well Chris, at the moment they've got a net overseas migration figure of around 300,000. And if you want to close the housing gap, and the housing gap really refers to the gap between the number of houses built and the number of people who have come into the country, which is about 350/400,000 over the last four years, you'd need to become in around 180,000 in order to close that gap. 

Chris Kenny:

180,000 a year or over...

Senator Bragg:

A year.

Chris Kenny:

Yeah. So that's a significant reduction you're talking about, and uh—and look, I should add that Labor has set targets in the past and always exceeded them, but you still wouldn't be cutting migration by as much as One Nation. They're suggesting they'd get down to about 145,000 a year.

Senator Bragg:

Well, I mean, if your objective is to try and close the housing gap, then you need to look at the number of people who are coming into the country, the number of houses being built, and over the forward estimates, if you had a NOM in the range of 180,000, then you would, in fact, be able to close that gap that Labor has created through mismanaging migration. So, look, I mean, this is not the only way to solve the housing crisis, but it's an important part. And so I thought it was important to try and move the debate along today by putting a range on the table, and then we can work out the additional components that are required as well.

Chris Kenny:

Yeah, now you're no fan of One Nation, and One Nation have led the charge in recent times over immigration. Do you feel that the Coalition is following the lead from One Nation here, either because of what the country needs or because of what you need to do to get back into public favor?

Senator Bragg:

Well, the housing crisis is a crisis of Labor's making. They've collapsed supply by 30,000 a year, they have had an unmanaged migration program, and that has made life harder for Australians, including new Australians that we want to have as part of our community. Now, the Canadians had to reduce migration to help with their housing crisis, and that's been effective. So, I mean, this is not an unusual policy suite to have. I just think it reflects poorly on the political class that this has been allowed to run for the last number of decades. There was always going to be a link at some level between migration and housing, and what's happened is it's become particularly pronounced because Labor has collapsed housing supply so egregiously.

Chris Kenny:

Yeah, so you're squeezing from both ends, supply and demand. You also spoke more broadly about the problems the Coalition has faced and the—your party, the Liberal Party in particular, over recent years. Let's have a listen to some of what you said.

Senator Bragg (National Press Club recording):

The Liberal Party, though, has contributed to our malaise by not being prepared to develop enough alternative policy and to wear political risk. As someone who was a backbencher in the Morrison government, I wish I'd done more to stop the madness. I believe the new liberalism that Australia needs isn't socialism, and it isn't conservatism seeking to turn back the clock.

Chris Kenny:

I don't think you'd buy too many arguments in saying that the Coalition has been a bit policy shy in the past, but you wouldn't want to turn your back on conservatism, would you? A lot of Liberal voters consider themselves to be conservative.

Senator Bragg:

And that's what we need right now. I mean, I've never been more convinced of the virtue of liberalism and a conservative approach to government, limited government, than I have been right now. If you wanted to solve our economic woes, uh then you would be applying the most liberal approach to business regulation, taxation, to get the place growing again because we're a stagnant, sclerotic economy desperately needing liberalism. You know, the problem we have is we haven't been liberal enough.

Chris Kenny:

Yeah, what we need is small government, and it hasn't been argued for strongly enough. Thanks for joining us, Andrew. I appreciate it. Andrew Bragg there, Senator Andrew Bragg, who is the Shadow Housing Minister.