Today host Sarah Abo has accused coalition leader Angus Taylor of blaming migrants for Australia’s housing crisis, telling him: ‘Apart from Indigenous Australians, we’re all migrants.’ 

Taylor appeared on the Today show following his budget reply speech, where he unveiled a major policy proposal to cap migration based on the number of homes built each year.

But when pressed by Abo to reveal the Coalition’s proposed annual migration intake, Taylor refused to put a figure on it.

‘What we’ve seen under Labor is that they’ve set migration targets without regard for housing construction. This has been insanity. It’s been madness,’ Taylor said.

‘What we’ve seen is way fewer houses than they planned and way more people than our country can absorb through our housing supply.’

Abo challenged Taylor over whether the housing crisis was the fault of multiple governments, not just Labor.

‘Is it their problem, or has it been consecutive governments who have stuffed that up?’ she asked.

Taylor conceded that may be the case, but insisted the Coalition’s proposal would force governments to align migration levels with housing supply.

‘Well, that may well be right, and what we’re saying is it’s got to change,’ he said.

Today host Sarah Abo confronted Angus Taylor live on air after accusing the Coalition of blaming migrants for Australia’s housing crisis, telling the Opposition Leader: ‘Apart from Indigenous Australians, we’re all migrants’

Taylor argued that the Albanese government had the migration policy wrong

‘What we’re proposing here is each year the housing minister would say, ‘We’ve got so many houses that have been built, that means we can absorb this growth in population,’ and that will set a cap on migration.’

Abo accused Taylor of linking migrants to Australia’s housing shortage.

‘You’re tying migration to housing, but what are you doing about the current situation for Australians right now?’ she asked.

‘Who, by the way, apart from Indigenous Australians, are all migrants? You’re talking about migrants being the people who are causing this housing problem when it’s the housing problem that’s come first.’

Abo said Australia built only about 172,000 homes last year and remained ‘behind the eight ball’ on supply.

‘How will you cap migration at a figure that you don’t actually know the amount of?’ she asked.

Taylor hit back at the claims he was blaming migrants themselves.

‘It’s not migrants causing the problem. It’s the government causing the problem because they’ve got their policy wrong,’ he said.

Abo then argued Taylor’s own logic would effectively mean accepting almost no new migrants because Australia remained so far behind on housing construction.

‘Based on those figures, Angus, you would accept no migrants because we are so behind the eight ball when it comes to building new homes,’ she said.

Taylor said migration would need to fall sharply in the short term while housing supply caught up.

‘There has to be a sharp reduction to do that.

 ‘We’ve said that there needs to be more than a 70 per cent reduction from the peak under Labor, and that is a big reduction. But that is what’s required to get the market back into balance.’