00:01This has been the subject of a high-level intervention, no higher than the Prime Minister
00:06himself. He's provided a statement to the ABC and I'll read it as follows.
00:10The refugee intake needs to be renewed in the coming budget as the 20,000 places was
00:16available for four years. He goes on to say, this intake number remains government policy
00:22and will be continued in future years, consistent with Australia's humanitarian commitments
00:27and sits beside our, the government's, strong border security measures.
00:31So there you go. After a day of Labor backlash over reports that the Home Affairs Minister
00:37was set to reduce the humanitarian intake back down to the baseline level of 13,750, the
00:46Prime Minister himself has intervened to guarantee no changes to the program, which I can tell
00:51you will be a huge relief to a lot of backbenchers and Labor MPs today who were genuinely supporting
00:57surprised and angered by this decision that had seemingly come out of nowhere from Home Affairs.
