Treasurer Jim Chalmers appeared on Ross Greenwood’s show on Sky News where he claimed that Australia’s record high net overseas migration (NOM), which has caused record tightness in the rental market, has been driven by fewer Australians moving overseas [my emphasis]:
Jim Chalmers: “Rent is one of the ones that is one of the inflationary pressures which is most acute right now that’s why we’re putting so much effort into building more supply”.
“Rent I think is a big driver of that [inflation]. That’s why it’s a big focus of ours”.
Ross Greenwood: “So does this even come then to the whole migration review that the government’s done about the number of migrants coming into Australia to take pressure off the labour force? But then there’s a question about where do those people live? What pressure does that place upon rents in the future?”
“So, there’s all so the push and pull that comes from simply trying to migrate your way out of the current labour shortages”?
Jim Chalmers: “Well I think obviously throughout our history migration has been a force for good in our communities and in our economy. But it needs to be well-managed and we need to understand and recognise as you have in your question that we need to make sure that the infrastructure including housing keeps up.
“But really importantly, and sometimes this point is missed, the recovery in migration that we’re expecting right now which is substantial – I don’t want to pretend otherwise – that’s not a government lever or a government target or policy. It’s a demand-driven thing”.
“And it reflects the fact that so few people came here during covid for all of the obvious reasons”.
“But even if this big recovery and migration we still haven’t recovered the ground that we lost during those couple of years when the migration tap was effectively turned off. So that’s an important, very very important point”.
“The two biggest drivers of migration recovering is actually the students, number one. “Number two is the tourist visas. Number three because it’s a net figure net overseas migration is actually fewer Australians leaving to work overseas”.
“And so that’s what’s driving the number temporarily and it’s largely a recovery from what we saw during covid”.
What a load of gaslighting rubbish.
First, the claim that the current immigration surge is “not a government lever or a government target or policy. It’s a demand-driven thing” is categorically false.
The Albanese Government has taken deliberate policy actions to encourage record numbers of migrants into Australia via:
- Extending post-study graduate visas by two years, thereby making student visas more attractive.
- Committing $42 million and 600 staff to clear the contrived “one million visa backlog” and rubber stamping as many visa applications as possible.
- Rubber stamping 66,000 “pandemic event visas” rather than closing the rort down.
- Prioritising offshore visa applications over onshore.
- Signing open borders migration agreements with India.
All of the above deliberate policy actions have turbo-charged migrant arrivals into Australia, resulting in the largest net overseas migration (NOM) in Australia’s history and the worst rental crisis in modern history.
Second, the claim that we are merely ‘catching up’ on lost immigration over the pandemic is laughable. What are we catching up on exactly?
The 2001 Intergenerational Report projected that Australia would not hit the current population size until around 2050. So, using that logic, aren’t we running around 30 years ahead on immigration?
Third, Chalmers’ claim that NOM has been driven higher by fewer Australians departing, rather than the record number of arrivals, is a classic case of “blame the victim” for his government’s reckless immigration program that nobody voted for and few people support.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also lied to the Australian people in December 2021 when he suggested he would run a lower immigration policy if elected:
Instead Albo lifted immigration to record levels. And now Jim Chalmers is lying about it.
The above farce highlights why we need to settle the immigration debate once and for all with a plebiscite on Australia’s future population.
Sadly, we all know that a population plebiscite would never happen because politicians and their lobbyists know it would kill the Big Australia immigration policy.
Instead, extreme levels of immigration will continue into perpetuity. Living standards will be crushed. And we will forever hear ‘bait-and-switch’ phony debates around housing affordability, ‘net zero’ and other secondary issues.
