Australian entrepreneur, Dick Smith, last night appeared on Mark Latham’s Outsiders, whereby he once again challenged Australia’s tri-partisan mass immigration ‘Big Australia’ policy (interview from 10.50):
Dick Smith: “I think they [policy makers] are crazy. Eight out of 10 Australian’s I talk to – I’ll get stopped in the street – and the most common thing they talk about is population. They say “Dick we agree with you”, I’ve been on this for more than 10 years, made a major documentary for the ABC, but no, it’s really strange, none of the major parties reflect it”.
“When it comes to the Liberals, it’s mainly big business and wealthy people – getting big donations to get the growth up. When it comes to Labor, I’m told that Labor members have lots of new Australians – ethnic people in their ranks – and they don’t want to offend those. But that’s ridiculous, because if you are a new Australian living here, you want your kids to have a job – and I can tell you, they won’t have a job, because with robotics and automation, the last thing we need is more people. You actually want less people, not more”.
Mark Latham: “The Labor Party’s been captured by those ethnic groups who won’t benefit from extra migration. We need an immigration policy that’s for the benefit of people that live here now”.
Dick Smith: “If we had a good leader… they’d be able to communicate that the 70,000 figure is very generous, it’s the average since about 1900 that’s made us so successful. And anyone with common sense knows you cannot have perpetual growth in a finite world. The only one that gets away with perpetual growth is a cancer cell, and they normally kill there host”.
Mark Latham: “It ticked up the level of immigration in around 2003, didn’t it, with John Howard? He was known for being tough on border protection – stopping the boats… But at the same time – somewhat of a paradox – he ramped-up Big Australia.
Dick Smith: “He was very astute because it looks as if we are becoming more successful. Now, how about this figure: in the last five years, the billionaires have more than doubled their wealth. Whilst typical Australians have gone down by about 3%… Harry Triguboff is now worth about $11.5 billion dollars… So the billionaires are incredibly well-off…”
Mark Latham: “People in a democracy should have a say about this fundamental difference. Do we have in 2050 a population of 40 million, or 28 million? They are two very different Australians, aren’t they?…
“This Big Australia policy is also having a big impact on the housing market… This housing demand is what’s driving-up prices?
Dick Smith: “It’s the main driver. What Harry Triguboff will say – in fact he already said it – “we’ll just bring in more immigrants” to live in all the houses. But that pushes the price up and the main force behind the rising prices is the incredible population increase. Now the other side will say “we just don’t build enough”. Well, first of all, what’s wrong with living in a house with a backyard?.. Now we are putting our kids in high-rise. I call them ‘battery kids’..”
There’s much more in the video above.
Well done Dick and Mark. Keep fighting the good fight.
