If you’re a pollie and think you can manage the current surge in angst about mass immigration then think again. The ‘cut immigration’ movement now has very serious momentum. Moreover, it is not being driven by demagoguery or ideas or anything else intangible. It is being driven by something that cannot be stopped: the lived experience of increasing congestion in eastern cities.
Remember that it was only a year ago that you could not mention this topic without being branded a “racist” across the media. As so often happens, once the lid was ripped off, the debate rushed out at explosive speed. Now the wowsers doing the branding are under siege. The ABC has been forced to cover the issue, and has been pushed to acknowledge that is has downsides. Traditional Left versus Right media divisions are also breaking down as experts cross boundaries.
Indeed, what is being exposed as the debate rages is just how thin the mass immigration arguments are. Higher house prices, lower wages and reduced living standards are obvious to everyone. The defenses against them are at best theoretical and more often than not deeply biased intellectually or financially.
