‘It takes a toll’: Coalition colleagues react to Jonathon Duniam’s retirement
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More news: Opposition spokesman for defence industry Phil Thompson told Sky News he “fully understands” Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam’s reasons for choosing to quit politics.
“It’s sad to see him go. I fully understand his reasoning though,” he said, noting the “family impact” of missing anniversaries, birthdays and holidays.
“It takes a toll,” he said.
“He’s been a fierce warrior and a fierce servant of the political party but also of the Senate and he’s been a mentor of mine, someone I call regularly and ask for feedback,” he said.
Asked whether One Nation could threaten Coalition seats and whether preference deals would be considered, Thompson said his view is to “make sure that we get rid of a bad Labor government ... I will work with anyone and everyone that wants to achieve that”.
Duniam formally announced his retirement from politics on Sunday morning (AEST), after The Mercury broke the news. He said he would not seek to recontest the next federal election and will retire from politics before the end of 2026.
“This was an extremely difficult decision to make — albeit that it is one I have been considering for quite some time,” Duniam said in a media statement.
“I have spent the past 25 years in politics, the last 10 of those as a Senator for Tasmania — and I have given everything to these responsibilities, often at the expense of family. Twenty-five years is a long time in any vocation and, when you take your role seriously, it always comes first. It is time I reversed my priorities and I can’t do that if I am to stay in politics.”
He acknowledged he was leaving at a “difficult time for the federal Coalition” but said he was confident his Liberal and National colleagues “are firmly on the right path”.
“No two people in the Coalition are more equipped to lead us (and Australia) back to success than Angus Taylor and Matt Canavan; they are both outstanding leaders and have a love for our country that is unrivalled,” he said.
Thompson also hit out at the government’s migration position, following Tony Burke’s comments this morning.
“I don’t necessarily think they will achieve their targets,” he said. “I just don’t think that the government has taken migration seriously.”
‘A bit out of sync’: Tony Burke suggests fewer people per home pushing up property prices more than immigration
The news: Home Affairs and Immigration Minister Tony Burke has pushed back on suggestions the dynamic of high levels of migration alongside low levels of home building is to blame for rising prices.
But he said migration must come down anyway to reduce pressure on housing.
“If you look at the number of houses over time ... in terms of the rate of housing completions and the rate of demand for new houses, in terms of how many people that you need for those houses, they’ve been a bit out of sync but not actually that much,” Tony Burke told Sky News on Sunday morning (AEST).
“The big shift that’s happened ... is Australians are now living fewer people per house than they used to, that hasn’t been largely driven by immigration but there needs to be an immigration response to it,” he said.
“And that is why it’s been so important that we get those total numbers down,” he said, noting migration is down 45% from its peak.
The context: Burke brushed off suggestions that the government allowing significant migration has contributed to the rise of One Nation.
“We’re continuing to cut [migration]. We’re continuing to make sure it’s tailored to the needs of the nation but what we will not do is create a situation where the people building houses can’t get workers, or a situation where your local community particularly in the regions can’t get a doctor, can’t get people to look after elderly Australians in aged care, can’t get nurses in the hospital effectively,” he said.
He was also asked whether the Bondi massacre contributed to the rise of One Nation amid concerns too many people with radical views have been allowed into Australia.
He said Australia had introduced new laws to make it easier to cancel visas. He said that “when the temperature is higher because of hate speech, effectively that always makes it more likely an event will occur and there were people wanting to come on public speaking tours just to engage in hate speech. I’ve been blocking their visas like no one has before”.
Responding to a question suggesting net migration for the calendar year 2025, with figures due out on Thursday, is likely to be at 320,000 he said the government would “deal with whatever figures are there”.
“You need to remember with net overseas migration, not everybody in that figure is a migrant,” he said, noting figures are driven by citizens going to work offshore or returning home.
Burke said the government couldn’t ignore the fact that “we need to bring these two issues of housing supply and immigration numbers into line”.
“There’s a whole lot of Australia that is dependent on people on visas, some of whom are on temporary visas, some of whom are permanent residents and effectively if you — without thinking through the consequences — start to commit yourself to numbers that attack our health system or attack our capacity to build homes then you’re not acting in the national interest.”
Burke said family migration is “really slow now” with aged parent visa applications facing a 30 year wait, with spouse visas taking two years for genuine applications.
“Obviously there are areas where we need to put resources. We need to put the resources into the health system, we need to put the resources into construction, we need to put the resources into those skills that the economy is absolutely relying on,” he said, noting the delays are based on this resourcing but also the volume of applications.”
Burke also responded to news Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam, opposition home affairs and immigration spokesman, is set to retire from politics.
“The Liberal Party lose one of their best and brightest when he leaves the Parliament,” Burke said.
“The reality is whenever there has been something squarely in the national interest, I have never seen him be anything other than professional.”
What they said: “[There is] something like more than a quarter of the various tradespeople who we rely on to build our homes are born overseas. Similarly, 60% of our GPs are born overseas. So, we need to make sure that we are targeting the people who we need most in Australia but also make sure that doesn’t stop us from getting the people we need to be able to build the houses,” Burke said.
“Now, the big visa where that needed to happen was student visas because international education is the only industry in Australia where you need to find a home for every single customer.”
He said the opposition had opposed the government’s legislation to directly link student visas to student housing.
“We found another way to be tempering that back ... effectively what we’ve been doing in migration is effectively bringing the numbers down and bringing the standards up.”
The source: Sky News
