The Australian reports that “Australia will experience the biggest two-year population surge in its history, with an extra 650,000 migrants this financial year and next driving a 900,000 jump in the number of residents”.
“Jim Chalmers has revealed net overseas migration this financial year is likely to be 350,000, perhaps more, a 50% rise on what was expected in the October budget and January’s annual population statement”, the report notes.
Home Affairs Minister, Claire O’Neil is triumphant about the population explosion, claiming “this data is a welcome indicator of the ongoing recovery from the pandemic and a reminder of the critical role migration plays in our economy, but also shows that we still have a long way to go to fill the gap in our workforce left by the pandemic”.
“The department has already reduced the massive visa backlog by 40%, but we want to go further”.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers likewise said that “even with this big bounce in net overseas migration, we still haven’t caught up with what we lost in Covid and that’s why it will still take time to fill the gaps and the skills shortages that you’re all familiar with and we’ve talked about on multiple occasions”.
Thus, Labor wants even more immigration.
Meanwhile, NAB has blamed the immigration surge for the rental crisis, saying it has “contributed to a sharp tightening in the rental market where vacancy rates have fallen to around or below 1% in most cities”.
This boom in immigration has been explicitly engineered by the Albanese Government, which used September’s Jobs & Skills Summit as a trojan horse to ramp numbers to record highs via:
- Increasing the permanent (non-humanitarian) migrant intake to a record high 195,000 people a year (up 35,000);
- Increasing the number of hours international students can work and how long they can stay after they finish their studies: and
- Committing 500 new staff and $42 million of funding to clear ‘visa backlogs’.
If anything, the 650,000 net overseas migration (NOM) projection over the 2022 and 2023 financial years is conservative.
NOM was already nearly 400,000 over the 2022 calendar year, with most arriving over the second half.
And monthly visa data to February 2023 is showing explosive growth, suggesting NOM will be even higher this year:
Therefore, 800,000 NOM over two years looks far more likely, possible even more.
Where are they going to live given Australia is already experiencing its worst ever rental shortage?
The latest polling shows that the overwhelming majority of Australians do not support a return to pre-COVID levels of immigration, nor higher:
Nor do they want Australia’s population to grow further:
Where was Labor’s announcement that it will increase immigration to previously unheard-of levels prior to the federal election last year?
Because Albo in December 2021 suggested Labor was against lifting immigration:
Who knew that supporting Anthony Albanese would result in Giant Australia, and a permanent shortage of homes and infrastructure?
