From Harry Stutchbury is the president of NSW Young Liberals:
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s claim that the rate of immigration has led to stagnant wages, unaffordable housing and clogged infrastructure is an inaccurate and populist appeal that doesn’t address any of the real problems facing Australia.
Abbott attributes immigration as a cause of higher house prices in our major capital cities. Obviously demand is a major influence on price, and high migrant levels will place upwards pressure on property prices. However, it does not address the underlying problems in our housing market.
Removing planning red tape and repealing the capital and entitlement distortions that make property an overvalued asset would be the ideologically consistent approach – instead of taking the bluntest of blunt instruments to a complex situation that would have ramifications for the rest of the economy.
Nationwide, state Labor governments have overseen huge shortfalls in infrastructure investment. To varying degrees, our schools are packed, our transport systems are crowded and our motorways backed up.
…By 2055 there will be 2.7 people of working age for each retiree. Currently, that number is 4.5 and was in 1975, it was 7.3. Unless we move to correct this imbalance, young people of this country will be left to carry a heavy tax burden to meet interest payments on federal government debt and to finance the pension and healthcare costs of an ageing population.
Short of a jump in our birth rate, the only effective way to increase our working age population is through our migrant intake.
Automation, participation and raising productivity will all solve this problem without the downsides that come from the mass immigration that is already delivering lower living standards for our youth.
At least the young Stutch has some time for house price concerns, previously this year:
In a provocative opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald, the 26-year-old Mr Stutchbury argued the Liberal Party should abolish the exemption that allows retirees to claim the pension despite owning multi-million dollar homes. The long-standing arrangement means a person’s primary dwelling is not counted in the asset test for the aged pension, and presently enjoys bipartisan support in the political arena.
Mr Stutchbury said the Liberals were “terrified of taking serious steps to tackle housing affordability”, having been burnt by its attempt to curb superannuation excesses before the last election.
In response, NSW Counter Terrorism Minister David Elliott blasted Mr Stutchbury on Facebook, suggesting Liberal voters in western Sydney would use the opinion piece to light their barbecues.
“A middle class eastern suburbs private school boy is hardly qualified to pass judgement on something he’s never faced,” Mr Elliott wrote. “Haven’t we already had our quota of policy brain farts?”
Back in December, the Urban Taskforce Australia released a report predicting that detached housing in Sydney will shrink in share from 55% currently to just 25% in 2057, with shoebox apartments becoming the dominant housing type:
The report also predicted that Sydney would become a city of renters.
Is this really the future that young Stutch wants for Sydney’s youth: renting high-rise apartments in a crowded city of 8 million people?
And therein lies the problem for the young Stutch. Australia’s political economy is broken. Sure it should be fixed but it ain’t happening so running ahead with Big Australia makes no sense until it is.
