Dutton’s plan to cut immigration would cost Australia’s economy ‘billions’, treasurer says

‘It is not possible to fully capture the damage that Peter Dutton would do to the skills base of this country,’ treasurer Jim Chalmers says. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Peter Dutton’s plan to reduce permanent migration into Australia would “cost the economy billions of dollars” before anyone could begin to estimate the damage to the nation’s skills base, the treasurer Jim Chalmers says.

Responding to Dutton’s budget-in-reply speech, where the opposition leader announced a plan to reduce permanent migration by 25% to help ease the housing crisis, Chalmers said Dutton’s proposal would “cost the budget tens of billions of dollars”.