Only the Right seems capable of having a population debate

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By Leith van Onselen

Why is it that only the conservative (“Right”) side of the media and politics seems capable of having a debate on Australia’s future population?

Over the past year, we have seen conservative commentators like Judith Sloan, Terry McCrann, Adam Creighton, Andrew Bolt, and Mark Latham, as well as federal politicians like Cory Bernardi, Pauline Hanson, and Tony Abbott all question the merits of Australia’s 200,000 strong permanent migration program, which is the primary driver of Australia’s population growth and the projected ‘Big Australia’ of 40 million people mid-century.

I have also been asked to commentate on this issue by the conservative side of the media, including the Bolt Report, News.com.au, and Radio 2GB, but have been ignored entirely by the left-leaning media.

Meanwhile, the Left-leaning mainstream media continues to pump out endless propaganda on why never-ending mass immigration is both necessary and beneficial from the likes of Fairfax’s Peter Martin and Jessica Irvine, and now The Guardian’s Tom Westlandlake. Meanwhile, Fairfax’s Ross Gittins, who has previously voiced strong concerns over mass immigration and a ‘Big Australia’ (e.g. here, here and here), has curiously fallen silent.

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This week has been particularly emblematic of the left/right divide over the whole immigration/population debate.

On Tuesday, we witnessed Tom Westlandlake’s rabid defence of ‘open borders’ (see here and here), playing the racism/xenophobia card against yours truly. And yesterday we had Peter Martin yet again arguing for ‘open borders’, citing spurious economic justifications that have been debunked many times over on this site and elsewhere.

There is a gigantic (and perhaps unprecedented) act of censorship underway in the Left-leaning media that I have never seen before.

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Now let’s turn to the conservative side of the media, which continues to push for a national population debate. Enter the following article published in Quadrant on Wednesday:

Australia’s population surged by a staggering 21.5% between 2003 and 2015 on the back of Canberra’s immigration-on-’roids policy. If current trends continue unabated, Australia’s population is projected to nearly double by 2050, to over 40 million.

…practically no effort has been expended by governments considering what Australia will look like in 10, 20, 40 or 80 years under this high immigration scenario. Canberra is rushing at breakneck speed while blindfolded towards a big, ultra-diverse Australia. In the long history of human folly, this must certainly be a stand-out…

The entire sum of its immigration policy appears to be to bring in as many people as quickly as possible while assiduously burying any sort of public discussion on the issue…

As a small but growing number of commentators has quite rightly argued, large-scale immigration is being used to artificially pump up economic growth figures at the expense of the existing Australian population. While mass immigration may juice headline GDP growth numbers, the average Australian is no better off economically in per capita terms, as various studies have confirmed. And when one takes into account the greater congestion, higher housing costs, lower wages, intensified job competition, loss of amenity, and overburdened infrastructure and services linked to the present influx, there is a compelling case that wide-open immigration is degrading the living standards of existing citizens.

Those peddling the myth that high immigration is good for all of us tend to be driven by either vested commercial interests or open-borders ideology…

Despite the mounting problems associated with the current policy, the major parties remain silently locked in bi-partisan embrace of mass immigration.

…curtailing immigration would alleviate pressure on infrastructure, housing affordability and wages. Australia’s clogged cities are struggling to keep up with population growth as migrants continue to flock in. Congestion is now a major drag on the country’s economic productivity and is only expected to worsen in the coming years. Governments will need to embark on the biggest infrastructure spend in the country’s history to prevent living standards being further eroded by immigration. Worse still, the costs will largely fall on existing residents…

Sydney and Melbourne, which receive the lion’s share of new migrants, now rank among the least affordable housing markets in the world. Panjandrums and policymakers expend countless words on Australia’s horrendous housing affordability nightmare but seldom mention the prime demand-side driver…

One would think that this unfolding social and demographic revolution would elicit some sort of serious national discussion. Instead, open discourse on the issue is largely suppressed in political and media circles, with only the most trivial or effusive commentary tolerated. Multiculturalistas in the media, academia and politics applaud the country’s growing “diversity” but rarely consider in anything but the most superficial manner the wider, long-term effects on national unity and identity…

It is high time that Australia had a mature and honest debate about such issues. Geoffrey Blainey once wrote that to shape an immigration policy is to “influence nearly every facet of life, now and for generations to come.” Governments are pushing us down a path that will dramatically impact the quality and way of life of current and future generations, without ever having allowed any sort of real public discussion on whether or not Australians want their country transformed beyond recognition.

If the only justification for sky-high immigration is that it’s “good for the economy”, it is a policy fundamentally flawed. When judged through the prism of the interests of existing citizens, there is no economic case that can justify the transformative changes that current policy is inflicting on Australia.

Sadly, it seems that only the conservatives in Australia are capable of having a mature discussion on the whole immigration/population issue. The Fake Left, by contrast, are missing in action, pushing endless propaganda in favour of mass immigration and abandoning the working classes, youth and environment that they purport to represent.

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The Left would do well to take a leaf out of Bernie Sanders playbook and rethink their advocacy of ‘open borders’, which is playing directly into the hands of the capitalist elites that they supposedly oppose.

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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.