Dutton arrives in Tasmania to snag marginal Labor seats

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has arrived in northern Tasmania, where he is helping to launch the party's campaign in the state.

Transcript

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.