19 February 2026

Consigning an underclass of imported workers to ‘wipe bums’ while he gives high-paid union members jobs in naval construction shows Peter Malinauskas’ contempt for immigrants, aged care workers and residents, and South Australians struggling to secure housing.

One Nation SA leader Cory Bernardi said the Premier’s crude attempt to attack One Nation glossed over multiple policy failures lying squarely at Labor’s door.

“Labor’s mass immigration isn’t bringing the skilled workers needed to address their failures to improve housing supply in South Australia or across the nation,” Mr Bernardi said. “It’s bringing people who just increase housing demand, driving up housing prices and rents for South Australians already suffering under Labor’s cost-of-living crisis.

“Since the pandemic, housing prices in SA have risen by more than 85% and rents have risen 52%. It’s no coincidence this has happened in the middle of the biggest population increase in national history, driven mainly by record immigration levels under Labor.

“If Labor wasn’t wasting at least $1.5 trillion on net zero to make our electricity more expensive it might be able to pay South Australians a sufficient wage to address worker shortages in aged care. If Labor wasn’t paying unsustainable wages to NDIS workers, the aged care sector wouldn’t have such an acute worker shortage.

“If Labor wasn’t raking in up to 45% the cost of new homes in taxes, housing would be a lot more affordable in SA. If Labor wasn’t lowering university entrance scores for useless degrees, more South Australians would take up apprenticeships and learn trades needed for urgent housing construction. Perhaps Labor should have thought about this before also selling off 40% of our public housing stock in SA.

“Peter Malinauskas is the emperor with no clothes. South Australians can’t live in submarines that won’t even be built for at least a decade.

“One Nation has solutions. We’ll develop a home-grown SA workforce by redirecting compulsory Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) levies to home construction businesses to fund apprentice wages, waiving prohibitive registration costs for first and second-year apprentices, and exempting apprentice wages from payroll tax.

“We’ll slash immigration to reduce housing demand, ban foreign ownership to increase housing supply, reduce taxes on new homes, and allow super funds to invest part of your super in your own homes to improve housing affordability.”

ENDS