Ministers discussed migration numbers, not cabinet — PM

Turnbull explains difference between his and Dutton’s responses on immigration intake

Malcolm Turnbull has attempted to clean up a public difference of opinion between himself and Peter Dutton, acknowledging that ministers did discuss the composition of Australia’s migration programme.

The spat was triggered by a report in the Australian on Tuesday saying the home affairs minister had previously suggested capping Australia’s immigration intake at 170,000 a year — which would have meant a cut of 20,000 people last year — but the proposal was quashed by the prime minister and the treasurer, Scott Morrison, before it made it to cabinet.

Turnbull subsequently declared the report “false” and “completely untrue”. Dutton then contradicted the prime minister, essentially confirming that he had discussed the issue with colleagues.

Yesterday morning Turnbull attempted to argue during an interview on 3AW that the initial report had referenced a cabinet deliberation, which it hadn’t.

“What was initially said in media, I think in the Australian, that there had been a submission brought to cabinet by Peter Dutton to reduce the ceiling of permanent migration … and that he had been rolled by me and Scott Morrison,” he said.

Issue not in cabinet

He said the issue had not gone to cabinet, but “if you are asking me, do ministers discuss migration and migration levels and the composition of the migration programmeme — well of course we do.

“It would be strange if we didn’t. And I might say the permanent migration ceiling, which has been set at 190,000 for some time, and which we were well below last year and we expect to be below this year, that is reviewed every year.”

The row is connected to a bout of positioning connected to the government’s loss of its 30th Newspoll this week, a metric which assumed oversized significance because Turnbull had invoked it as one of the rationales to dump Tony Abbott from the Liberal leadership in 2015.

The government attempted to respond to the loss with a full-court press of the cabinet, with all the key senior figures deployed in media interviews to decree the prime minister’s leadership was safe.

Turnbull subsequently declared the report ‘false’ and ‘completely untrue’. Dutton then contradicted the prime minister, essentially confirming that he had discussed the issue with colleagues.