Budget reply speech 2023: Peter Dutton withholds support for jobseeker boost and doubles down on migration attacks

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has linked a projected increase in migration to the ‘housing and rental crisis’ in his budget reply speech. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The Coalition will withhold support for the government’s $40 a fortnight increase in jobseeker, with Peter Dutton using his budget reply speech to instead call for welfare recipients to be able to earn more before payments are reduced.

The opposition leader criticised Labor on migration levels and nuclear energy in his budget reply on Thursday evening, but supported some of the government’s proposed welfare and cost-of-living relief measures.