Labor's migration changes rubbish if they don't raise pay floor

The AFR is running a full court press demanding the Albanese Government open the migration floodgates wider for “a Bigger Australia”:

This follows Wednesday’s speech by Home Affairs Minister Claire O’Neil to The AFR’s Workplace Summit which flagged a significant expansion of Australia’s migration program to bring “the skills and capabilities we need to drive our nation forward”.

O’Neil claims Australia’s migration system needs an overhaul because “our economy is stuck in a productivity rut and real wages are lower now than they were a decade ago”, even though crush-loading the nation with migrants working in low productivity ‘people-servicing’ jobs is one of the reasons why the productivity has stalled (see here).

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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.

Labor’s migration changes rubbish if they don’t raise pay floor