THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
SUNRISE
MONDAY, 8 SEPTEMBER 2025

Topics: JACINTA PRICE & SUSSAN LEY COMMENTS ON INDIAN MIGRATION; LABOR'S HOUSING PLAN. 

MONIQUE WRIGHT: Well, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is in damage control this morning, meeting families with Indian heritage in Sydney yesterday, after her colleagues, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, caused anger in the community for accusing the government of bending migration to bring in more potential Labor voters. Ms Ley condemned the remarks, saying that they were wrong, corrected and won't be repeated. But neither she nor Senator Price have apologised for any hurt caused to Indian Australians. For their take, let's bring in Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce. Morning to you both.

BARNABY JOYCE: Good morning.

WRIGHT: Barnaby, I don't get it. If both Senator Price and the Opposition Leader Sussan Ley admit that the mistakes, that the comments were a mistake, why stop short of actually apologising, saying sorry?

JOYCE: Well, I can't think in their mind. But look, you make mistakes in politics all the time and the best thing to do is apologise and move on and get off it, get onto another topic. It's just the nature of politics. It's- you're not going to be perfect on every statement you ever make. You're going to make mistakes.

I don't think Jacinta has been for Indians, by the way. I think that she's trying to convey the issue that you just got to control migration. It's out of control. Why is it out of control? Not because of the people, because we just don't have the resources. We don't have the houses, the hospitals, the schools, the dams to absorb them.

WRIGHT: Okay, we'll go to Tanya on that in a minute. But would your suggestion be to both of them just say sorry and we can move on? Because it will dog them until they say sorry, won't it?

JOYCE: Yeah, well, if that solves the problem, move on. If so, it's not whether you think, whether you think you've created offence, it's whether the person heard it believes it was offensive. That's where you supposed to be got to start from.

WRIGHT: All right, Tanya, as Barnaby just brought up that this discussion of course is centred around Australia's migration levels, where Sussan Ley says that there is a failure of government policy here to build the infrastructure needed, the services, the roads, et cetera, to meet demand. Is there too much stress on the market?

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Well, first of all, Jacinta Price should apologise. And if she doesn't, Sussan Ley should make her apologise. I'm also concerned to hear that, you know, Jacinta Price is now saying Alex Hawke has been bullying her. So, they've got all sorts of mess happening on the Coalition.

In the meanwhile, we're focused on making sure that those services are there for Australians. We're investing in housing, in transport, in infrastructure. We've seen the minimum wage go up $9,000 a year since we came to government. Tax cuts for every Australian. We've embarked on the energy transition. We've got our Building the Early Education Fund, that's a billion dollars to build childcare centres in areas where they don't currently exist. We're investing in Medicare GP Super Clinics so that people can see a doctor when they need to see a doctor. We're bringing down the cost of medicines. We've got Fee-Free TAFE, we've got university debt relief- [inaudible].

JOYCE: [inaudible] Talking points.

WRIGHT: But still a massive issue, but still a massive issue though, Tanya. Still a massive issue, though, Tanya, with infrastructure and with housing, with construction.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: And the two, the two years that had the highest number of visas issued from 2017 onwards, Peter Dutton was the Immigration Minister. He had Home Affairs then. We've been bringing down-

JOYCE: History lessons.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: - the number of people coming into Australia and building up the infrastructure we need so that every Australian has a great quality of life.

JOYCE: [inaudible] you’re not actually.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Things that were left neglected for 10 years under those opposite.

JOYCE: It's not true [inaudible].

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well what did you do, Barnaby-

JOYCE: It's not true. It’s not true [inaudible].

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: -when you had the chance, when you were Deputy Prime Minister? What did you do?

JOYCE: [inaudible] Okay, after you've gone through your reams and reams of talking points that were handed to you, let's just go to actually ground truthing this. People cannot afford a house, and, the houses [inaudible]-

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: And that's why we're investing $43 billion to bring down the cost of housing.

JOYCE: -[inaudible] the houses for the people, the houses for immigrants [inaudible]-

WRIGHT: Okay, Barnaby. Barnaby, your turn.

JOYCE:  -the house prices gone through the roof. We are not, we do not have the schools, the hospitals, the dams, the infrastructure for the people you're bringing in. Only 12 per cent of the people you bring in- this is as I came to work this morning up here- are skilled migrants. I mean, what, this is not working for us, Tanya. And, and just reading out the talking points-

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, let's talk about housing then.

JOYCE: -does not, does not build houses. You're the government.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Let's talk about housing, you built-

JOYCE: You’re the government. You're the government. You're supposed to fix it. Let's talk about Edmund Barton and what Edmund Barton did back in the [inaudible] century.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Let's talk about housing, Barnaby, as you mentioned it. In 10 years, you built fewer than 400 social and affordable homes. We've built 5,000 already.

JOYCE: Tanya, you're the government.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: 5,000 already.

JOYCE: Well, they're not- Tanya.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: That's what I'm telling you.

JOYCE: Tanya. Why have the price of houses gone through the roof? Why have the prices then-

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: And for first home buyers, there are 6,000 extra First Home Buyers going into the- stop shouting over me-

JOYCE: Australians aren't getting the houses.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: There are 6,000 extra First Home Buyers every year.

JOYCE: Because you talk incessantly and don't give anybody a chance to talk, Tanya.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: 5 per cent deposits.

WRIGHT: Okay. Tanya, Barnaby.

JOYCE: Tanya, we can do a timer-

WRIGHT: We are out of time now.

JOYCE: -on how long you talk and how I talk, and you just talk incessantly.

WRIGHT: It is a little bit difficult to understand when you're both talking but it's a good, robust debate and we appreciate it here on Sunrise. Thank you both for being in, Tanya and Barnaby.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Good morning.

ENDS