It is ceaselessly horrifying to watch as successive generations of Australians are sucked into the property vortex that is devouring the soul of the country. Nowhere is this more baffling than in the national media where younger commentators that profess to be against the bubble also maintain lines of argument strongly in favour of it, either deliberately for personal gain or unwittingly owing to their values.
I am speaking here most pointedly about Chris Kohler (son of Alan) of News, and Jessica Irvine of Fairfax.
There is little reason to rehash the two’s argument against high house prices. Both have attacked them, Kohler more vociferously than Irvine, but she was very strong on supporting Labor’s negative gearing reform to bring down prices.
What is baffling, then, is why both are also the two most full-throated supporters of high immigration in the national press.
Kohler recently described anyone against rampant levels of immigration as ignorant, ironically by making no arguments in favour of it, and yesterday we had the same biased view from Irvine. What gives?
The easy explanation is to blame this on seeking to secure jobs at their respective firms – News and Fairfax – which are now basically worthless other than their property classifieds businesses. Every journalist constantly weighs his or her commitment to the truth against the proclivities of management.
But, I wonder if there is not something else going on. The Gen Ys and Millennials that I know have subtlety evolved identities versus older Australians. Their sense of fairness in terms of gender, sexuality and ethnicity is central to their value systems in a way that goes well beyond prior generations. Where those right-thinking Australians that came before were used to chauvinism, racism and homophobia and moved to combat it as a choice, younger Australians have absorbed the equality of difference as a part of their DNA.
That is, they do not see difference at all.
This is a triumph of social progress. It has also been a pre-requisite for the political challenges of the day, given globalisation and the rise education as a key determinate for prosperity. Not to mention the formidable task of addressing climate change, which demands a certain amount of post-cultural awareness if it is to succeed.
But one wonders if it doesn’t leave our youth with a blindside when it comes to protecting their interests at home. As admirable and perfectly progressive as this identity is, the world is still largely channeled around the borders of nation states. In Australia’s case, that is especially so when it comes to young Australian’s bete noir, the bloated house prices wrecking their dreams, which are clearly the result of deliberate policy, including very high immigration which puts a lot of pressure on demand.
So, when young Kohler and Irvine are adamant that Australian house prices should be brought down, and that immigration should be kept up, one might ask if they are not caught between the Scylla of their values and Charybdis of their needs.
After all, how can they on one hand be so appalled by the negative gearing that boosts local speculation on houses prices while being so in favour of the Chinese and other buyers that do not even bother to live in their land-banked Australian properties? How can they possibly favour Chinese specufestors over Australian?
I do not know the answer which is why I am speculating. But I advise both Irvine and Kohler to stop supporting wholesale immigration if they want to help lift the lot of their generational peers.
Immigration must come down or house prices will stay higher than they need to. It’s not racism. It’s reality.
