Labor spins cost of living fairy tales

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Take a look at the below spin from Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, published Wednesday on Twitter (X):

Clare O'Neil Tweet

“No matter where in Australia you are, the Albanese Government’s first, second, and third priority is doing all we can to help all Australians manage the cost of living”, O’Neil says.

Try telling that to Australia’s growing army of renters who are being plunged deep into financial stress, forced to live in group housing, or thrown onto the streets by Labor’s reckless extreme immigration.

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Take a look at the below charts.

Australia’s population grew by a record 680,000 people in 2023 on the the back of unprecedented net overseas migration:

Australia's population change

This unprecedented immigration deluge has sent rental vacancy rates crashing:

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Rental vacancy rates

It has also sent rents into the stratosphere:

Median advertised rents

This surge in immigration was planned by O’Neil and Labor, which held the Jobs & Skills Summit in 2022 with the express purpose of ramping immigration.

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“One of the truly exciting things about migration is that there really is so much consensus”, O’Neil said during the Summit.

“Our government’s intent is to capture it, and take it forward”.

“Immigration is one the biggest levers we have to drive our country forward, and it is fast, and it is powerful”.

“So I want Australia to pull it”, O’Neil said.

And pull it, Labor did. They quickly increased the permanent migrant intake by 35,000, opened up more temporary visa pathways, spent $42 million to hire 400 staff to rubber stamp visas, and signed migration pacts with India to boost inflows.

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In December 2022, O’Neil lamented to the National Press Club that the migration system “had defaulted to bringing in high numbers of temporary, low-skilled workers, who churned through the labour market”. 

Only to ramp temporary migration to record levels:

Temporary visas on issue

When net overseas migration began breaking records a year ago, O’Neil argued it was a sign of success, claiming the record projected immigration “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”.

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Meanwhile, tent cities are mushrooming around Australia because Labor is importing more renters into Australia than there are homes.

Brisbane tent city

I could move onto Labor’s disastrous energy policy, which has driven up gas and electricity prices, but I’ll leave that to another day.

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With friends like Labor, Australia’s working class sure doesn’t need enemies.

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.