Opposition leader Peter Dutton has arrived in northern Tasmania, where he is helping to launch the party's campaign in the state.
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00:00This is Peter Dutton's first visit to Tasmania. He's in town to launch the State's Party campaign.
00:08We're inside a berry shed on a farm in a town called Exton, about half an hour from Launceston,
00:15where Peter Dutton is saying that only the Liberal Party will know and understand Tasmania
00:20and back them. We heard from him at this rally saying that the Liberal Party will protect
00:25the salmon industry here in northern Tasmania, as well as duplicate parts of the Bass Highway,
00:32an $80 million commitment that was defunded under the Labor government that he says the
00:37Coalition would restore if it wins the federal election. This morning he was in McEwen outside
00:43of Melbourne, a semi-rural electorate that is held by Labor, but the Coalition is hoping
00:49to pick up. It was only a pit stop, but he was there to announce a promise to cap university
00:53student intake to 80,000 less than 2023 levels, saying that's about 30,000 stronger than
01:03the Labor plan that the Coalition rejected last year. Peter Dutton is saying there's
01:08about 42 foreign students to every one dedicated property at the moment, and that something
01:15has to be done. There has been this explosion in the Big Australia policy under Mr Albanese
01:21that he didn't take to the last election, never mentioned it to anyone. And over a five-year
01:26period the government's predicting they'll bring in about 1.8 million people, but as
01:29we know with every one of their predictions, the numbers have blown out. So that number
01:33is likely to go higher than two million people, and these people of course all need homes
01:38and they want to either buy or rent, and in that situation Australians are being forced
01:43out of home ownership, and rents are being driven up, and that's the problem that we
01:47want to fix.
01:49Here in Lyons, just outside of Launceston, the Coalition is hoping it can claim one of
01:56the most marginal seats in the country, held by Labor on a 0.9% margin. Labor is well aware
02:03that this is a seat they will need to cling on to, and so they've nominated former state
02:08leader Rebecca White to contest that seat. Mr Dutton's saying today that Tasmania doesn't
02:14want to see Miss White in Canberra, that that would be a bad outcome. But he's also
02:20made multiple mentions of the Greens connection here in Tasmania, well aware that for some
02:26Tasmanian voters, their positions on salmon industry, farming and a number of other sensitive
02:33environmental issues are something that could see the Coalition pick up votes here in Tasmania.