KPMG’s Bernard Salt, the “unabashed supporter of a bigger Australia”, has taken his spruik to whole new level today, recommending that Australia fully sell out our children’s future to China. From The Australian:
The property market is benefiting from, or is being subjected to, “the Dubai effect”. The reason why Dubai was such a successful city-state in the 1990s was because it was a safe haven in a troubled world…
Where do the super wealthy or even the mildly wealthy of China invest in lifestyle?… in places such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and most probably the Gold Coast…
…In the meantime true globalisation will unfold. This means not just outsourcing low-skilled work to Guangzhou, it also means insourcing wealthy transnational residents.
Australia can’t have it both ways: access to cheap manufactured consumer goods, but restricted access from overseas to local lifestyle and investment property…
Australia is in effect a supply line of food, energy, resources and commodities to China… And if this is the case then it makes sense to integrate the Chinese middle class into Australian cities and perhaps to skew immigration in favour of China.
Australia’s future is inextricably connected with Asia; our demography must reflect this emerging reality.
One could ask, since when has Dubai been the poster child for an economy?
Is this really the future we want for our kids? Property impoverished dependents and barristas serving rich (and sometimes corrupt) Chinese and lazy old baby boomers getting fat on rents?
And since when does importing cheap Chinese goods necessitate the wholesale selling-off of Australian assets? How are these two issues in any way linked?
I have no objection to Chinese immigration per se, as long as it is part of a moderate overall immigration program that targets raising the living standards of the existing population. But to suggest that Australia should welcome unfettered residential property investment and immigration from China (or elsewhere for that matter) is a mistake, and would only lower young Australians living standards via: lack of affordable housing options; worsening infrastructure and increased congestion; and the dilution of national resources wealth.
Perhaps Mr Salt should read some of his own recent rumblings on these issues.
