One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has blasted Premier Peter Malinauskas with the claim he sees Australian children as a “cost” compared to immigrants who deliver an economic “surplus”.
She said he “let the cat out of the bag” by declaring Australian children represented a net budget cost of $85,000 while migrants delivered a $198,000 benefit.
The savage attack on the father of four follows his controversial speech to the Sydney Institute, challenging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s immigration agenda which was widely seen as a step towards a tilt at the PM’s job.
In it he condemned the “madness” of a mainstream “political race to the bottom” to slash migration and attacked the far Left’s “intense self-righteousness, sanctimony and piety” in a move to try to neutralise the rise of One Nation.
He said: “Skilled migrants arrive job ready, now at a relatively low cost. In 2021 Treasury estimated the average Australian-born resident has a lifetime net cost to public budgets of $85,000, whereas the average skilled migrant delivers a net $198,000 benefit to public budgets over a lifetime in Australia.”
Senator Hanson says Mr Malinauskas “said the quiet part out loud”, claiming the speech exposes Labor’s “contempt for Australian families and its preference for mass migration over educating and training Australians”.
“Premier Malinauskas has exposed what Labor really thinks: Australian children are a cost, while importing more migrants is only a benefit to budget revenue,” Senator Hanson said.
“That contempt for Australian families and children helps explain why Labor will not cut immigration. Labor would rather import migrants than educate, train and create opportunities for the next generation of Australians.
“Labor has chosen mass migration as a substitute for investing in Australian children.”
Senator Hanson said Australians simply don’t believe the benefits of mass immigration as claimed by Mr Malinauskas.
“Families are competing with hundreds of people for rental accommodation, patients are stuck in ambulances because there are not enough hospital beds and young Australians are being locked out of home ownership while wages and infrastructure can’t keep up,” she said.
“The Premier’s comments show he is addicted to mass migration at the expense of Australian children.”
A government spokesman dismissed Senator Hanson’s comments as demonstrating “her disinterest in policy substance and her obsession with generating political noise.”
“It’s not surprising Pauline Hanson is either completely ignoring the facts or deliberately misrepresenting the truth in regards to Mr Malinauskas’s speech,” the spokesman said.
“Mr Malinauskas clearly said in his speech: ‘Australian kids should be the first to get the opportunity, which is why supercharging training and skills has to be the priority.’
“Which is why the state government has invested so heavily in putting technical colleges back into our high schools, and revitalising TAFE.”
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