For years, Nick Reece, Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne and principal fellow at Melbourne University, has steadfastly backed the ‘Big Australia’ program of mass immigration.
Reece claimed “countries that don’t have strong immigration programs often get themselves into trouble” and that a “big immigration program surely is a good thing for our economy”.
He also argued strongly against policies to lower immigration in 2017, including tighter English language proficiency, the introduction of a four-year waiting period for citizenship, and restrictions to temporary skilled and student visas, arguing they “risk hobbling the economy”.
Reece then had the gall to criticise Melbourne’s unsightly high-rises while conveniently omitting the massive immigration driving said overdevelopment.
After the coronavirus subsided in late 2021, Reece called for a “massive wave of new immigrants to help get the city back on track… to help rebuild after the war on COVID”.
Then in mid 2022, Reece penned another article celebrating that “Melbourne’s population growth will bounce back stronger than ever” to “become Australia’s largest city by the end of the decade”.
Reece also span that Melbourne will somehow become “a sustainable city with zero emissions by 2030 and zero waste by 2040” by jamming in millions of extra migrant residents – a contradiction in terms.
Last week, Reece penned an article in The Age simultaneously celebrating Melbourne’s immigration explosion, while also decrying the chronic lack of housing, which has sent rents soaring and people into homlessness.
“Melbourne is about to go through the biggest population growth surge in its history”, Reece said.
“Where are these people going to live? Currently, there are 48,000 people waiting for assistance into housing. Rents are soaring due to a lack of supply in the private market”.
“According to Infrastructure Victoria, more than 44,000 new homes are needed every year for the next 30 years to accommodate an additional 3.1 million people”, Reece bemoaned.
“I am a longtime supporter of a bigger Melbourne. But it must be well-planned”.
“The solution to the housing crisis is deceptively simple: build more homes”.
“Welcome to Melbourne, I hope you packed a tent”, Reece quipped.
Here’s a novel idea: when you are suffering from chronic housing and infrastructure shortages, the sensible policy is to not continually add to the problem by running the largest immigration program in history.
The literal explosion in Melbourne’s population this century has delivered the nation’s worst per capita economic outcomes, including flatlining gross state product and incomes per capita (explained here).
Continuing this failed economic paradigm of mass immigration will only produce the same outcomes once more: an increase in unsightly high-rise dog boxes, congested infrastructure, homelessness, slow productivity growth, and slow wage growth.
It’s a program that raises the wealth of capital owners while lowering the standards of living for Melburnians.
Regrettably, Deputy Lord Mayor Nick Reece solely speaks for elites in the business, real estate, and immigration lobbies and not for Melbourne’s residents.
Political figures like Nick Reece are part of the problem.
