Abul Rizvi loves to throw barbs at yours truly and MacroBusiness.
On multiple occasions, Rizvi has played the “racism card” (for example, here, here and here).
On others, he has accused us of pandering to anti-immigration haters.
Strangely, Rizvi on Friday chose to attack my factual article on the population numbers inferred by last week’s national accounts release for June:
As shown in the below chart from Cameron Kusher, the ABS national accounts estimates that Australia’s population swelled by 626,500 in the year to June – easily the largest increase in history:
Source: Cameron Kusher (PropTrack)
When asked by commenters to explain why I was wrong, Rizvi remained deafeningly silent because he had no response. He had merely chosen another ad hominem attack.
The above population estimates come directly from the ABS national accounts. So why wouldn’t I (or others) discuss them, especially given the nation is grappling with the worst rental crisis in modern history?
Moreover, nobody voted for such extreme immigration levels, and the majority of voters do not support it.
Hilariously, Rizvi’s latest salvo follows his own Tweets earlier in the week on the record volume of temporary migrants landing in Australia:
Rizvi himself said the number of temporary migrants “will keep growing in 2023” and that the “government needs a plan to manage this”.
Put away your creepy “racism” dog whistle, Abul.
You don’t have a monopoly on discussing population and immigration numbers. You are not the universal source of truth on these matters, even though you arrogantly purport to be.
