Australia’s population growth surpasses 600,000

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Wednesday’s ABS national accounts showed that Australia’s population grew at an extraordinary 2.6% annual pace in the six months to June, the highest rate on record:

Australian population growth rate

Source: Alex Joiner (IFM Investors)

In actual number terms, this suggests that Australia’s population swelled by 626,500 in the year to June – easily the largest increase in history:

Change in population

Source: Cameron Kusher (PropTrack)

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These extreme population growth numbers are confirmed by the ABS’ population clock, which shows that Australia’s population is currently 26.7 million:

Population clock

This is an increase of 459,085 on 31 December 2022:

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2022 population

As independent economist Tarric Brooker notes, this suggests that Australia’s population will grow by around 675,000 people in calendar year 2023:

Tarric Brooker Tweet
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If so, this would blow past the federal budget’s projections of a population increase of 490,000 to 26.75 million:

Budget population projections

Source: 2023 federal Budget

Australia will that population projection three months early by end-September 2023.

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Make no mistake. This population deluge has been deliberately engineered by the Albanese Government, which has taken explicit policy actions to ramp up immigration.

These policies include:

  • Extending post-study graduate visas by two years, in turn making student visas more attractive.
  • Committing $42 million and 600 staff to clear the so-called “one million visa backlog” and rubber stamping as many visa applications as possible.
  • Raising the permanent non-humanitarian migrant intake by 30,000 to 190,000, thereby increasing the chances of temporary migrants gaining permanent residency.
  • Approving 66,000 “pandemic event visas” and waiting too long to close the rort down.
  • Prioritising offshore visa applicants over onshore.
  • Removing a requirement that international students acknowledge that they are not applying for a student visa to migrate to Australia.
  • Signing migration agreements allowing Indian students and workers to live in Australia long-term.

In turn, the Albanese Government has delivered Australians an unprecedented rental crisis, crush-loaded infrastructure, rising unemployment, and a per capita recession.

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Nobody voted for such extreme immigration, and the majority of voters do not support it.

Anthony Albanese also lied to Australians when he suggested in December 2021 that a Labor government would run a more moderate immigration program:

Albanese Government immigration
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Labor has committed a treasonous betrayal of working Australians.

About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.