Rookie RBA governor Michele Bullock took gaslighting to a new level in her speech at Wednesday’s Australian Business Economists dinner.
Bullock claimed it was “not clear cut” that the Albanese government’s record immigration program is “adding heaps” to inflation, noting that while it is driving rents through the roof, it is also curbing wage inflation.
“What people often forget is that the increased population also adds to supply, and our judgement is that, yes, there is a bit of adding to inflation with pressures from demand, but at the same time, the increase in the population is adding the supply of labour and that’s helping on the demand-supply imbalance in the labour market as well”, Bullock said.
“So it’s not clear cut (that) immigration is just simply causing lots of inflation. Sure, you can point to housing and rents. It’s been one particular area where there’s a particular bottleneck, but I think it’s a (more subtle) argument than that”.
Assuming Bullock is correct, she has tacitly admitted that immigration hurts local workers, since it lowers wage growth at the same time as adding demand-inflation pressures across the economy.
Maybe that’s why the latest RBA Statement of Monetary Policy forecasts that real wages will remain below their pre-pandemic level for years to come:
The impact is obviously most severe on renters, who face falling real wages at the same time as their housing costs are hyper-inflating.
Bullock’s comments are also tacit acknowledgement that running a lower immigration policy would improve equity, since it would simultaneously reduce rents while boosting real wages, benefiting lower-income workers the most.
Thank you, Michele Bullock, for inadvertently confirming that the ‘Big Australia’ mass immigration policy is welfare-destroying for Australian workers.
