​Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce Claims Sydney Is ‘Full’

Nationals leader and deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has said Australia needs to change its immigration intake as Sydney cannot cope with any more people.

Instead, he wants to see both 'skilled' and 'unskilled' workers heading out to the regions to do jobs which he claims Australians 'just won't do' - including picking mangoes and working in abattoirs.

"We've got to say 'If you want to come to Australia, you're going to have to live in Tamworth. You're not going to live in Turramurra'," he said on Ben Fordham's 2GB Breakfast show.

"Sydney's full. And we've got to make sure people go to regional areas," he added.

"Sydney does not want more people, but regional areas do."

He said having immigrants doing the jobs that locals won't is vital to strengthening Australia's economy again, so the population can have everything they 'want' including nuclear submarines, health and education.

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"To make this economy work, we have to export goods. We have to make ourselves as strong as possible as quickly as possible," he said.

"To become as strong as possible as quickly as possible, we've got to make our beef industry as big as possible as quickly as possible, our coal exports as large as possible as quickly as possible, our iron ore exports, our gas exports, our sheep exports, education, tourism, yes, them as well.

"And to do that, you need to be able to supply all the labour required to do that.

"Because that's how we earn the money that pays for the nuclear submarines, that pays for your defence force, that pays for your health, your education, everything else that you want.

"But we've got to make the money. And to do that, we've got to go to regional areas and make sure that place is just absolutely humming with exports."

Joyce was on air after host Ben Fordham raised concerns about the potential for rising immigration levels once Australia opens up again.

Fordham noted Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has designs on welcoming 235,000 new migrants every year, which he said was roughly the population of Hobart.

He questioned whether the country actually has the Government services to cover the influx and cited rising Government debt as both a potential issue and incentive.

"Our leaders see this as a money tree," he said, but questioned if it was in the best interests of 'everyday Australians'.

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Already, he said, Sydney has 'some of the worst traffic congestion in the world', patients are waiting too long to be treated in the city's emergency rooms, schools are overcrowded and Sydney house prices are rising at three times the rate of wages.

Various economists, however, said migrants with both low and high-skilled jobs would fill gaps in the market and add $100 billion to the economy.

"The big benefit from migration, especially skilled migration, is the dividend it generated for the Australian community," said the Grattan Institute's Dr Brendan Coates.

"They pay more in taxes than they receive in public services over their lifetimes."

Topics: News, Barnaby Joyce, Australia