The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) attempted censorship of the migration debate, explained in detail here and here, received support from ABC’s Media Watch, which attacked so-called ‘right-wing’ media outlets for raising alarm at the astronomical numbers of net migrants landing in Australia, which are higher than anything Australia experienced before the pandemic.
An extract of the Media Watch segment can be watched below, with the full episode available here.
The experts we spoke to assured us that rather than being overwhelmed by migrants in fact, we’re getting fewer.#MediaWatch pic.twitter.com/PjcyCi8nLh
— Media Watch (@ABCmediawatch) August 25, 2025
You will notice that the Media Watch segment never actually debunks Radio 2GB’s claim that a record ~280,000 arrivals have landed in Australia over the first half of 2025 (although the term “net permanent and long-term arrivals” should have been used by 2GB instead):
Sure, 2GB host Ben Fordham probably shouldn’t have opened with “the latest migration data is out” and instead said something like, “the latest data on net permanent and long term arrivals into Australia is out”, but this is minutiae.
The fact remains that the net permanent and long-term arrivals figure was the highest for the first six months of any year in Australia’s history:
Radio 2GB never used the term “net overseas migration” (NOM) in its disputed segment, which is effectively the “net permanent and long-term arrivals” figure adjusted for the 12/16 month rule. For NOM purposes, an individual must have lived in Australia for 12 out of 16 months to qualify as a ‘migrant’.
Hence, the net permanent and long-term arrivals figure has historically tracked NOM in a directional sense, but not in number terms (see first chart above).
More broadly, an ABC program actually dealing with immigration statistics is rare. But instead of acknowledging that Australia’s immigration and population growth rates are excessively high by first-world standards or the huge economic and social costs that I, Judith Sloan, Alan Kohler, and other economists have described, Media Watch instead focused on data minutiae, trying to paint opposition to historically high rates of immigration as xenophobia and racism.
There was no acknowledgement by host Linton Besser that actual NOM has blown way past the federal government’s own forecasts.
As Besser’s fellow ABC columnist Alan Kohler wrote on Monday, “at least 800,000 more people came to live in Australia over the past four years than Treasury anticipated. That’s more than three extra Hobarts”.
“The fact remains that when the pandemic ended, the Australian government had no idea that net migration would total 1.6 million over the next four years and apparently had no way of controlling it”, Kohler wrote.
“The failure to match population with housing and infrastructure has led to a more serious decline in living standards than evident from GDP per capita statistics”.
There was no acknowledgement by Besser that the extra 800,000 people that have inundated Australia have caused rental vacancy rates to plummet and driven asking rents through the roof:
As a result, Cotality estimated that the typical Australian tenant is now paying more than $10,000 extra in rent per year than at the start of the pandemic.
Source: Cotality
Media Watch also rubbished the IPA’s claim that “excessive migration has pummelled Australia’s economic productivity”, which is factually correct.
The only migration ‘expert’ host Clinton Beeser cited was a veteran population-growth promoter, Peter McDonald, who offered that often-heard reassurance that we should not worry too much about current historic immigration levels because they are “expected to fall”.
McDonald disingenuously claims that net overseas migration is “plummeting”. You mean, from Mt. Everest to Denali?
Hilariously, McDonald’s Migration Hub article claiming that NOM is “plummeting” also stated that “net overseas migration is the difference between long-term arrivals and departures”. Perhaps the ABS should flag McDonald and the ANU Migration Hub for spreading misinformation?
My Monday morning interview with Ben Fordham was briefly mentioned in the segment. However, Media Watch misrepresented me as being on Besser’s side regarding the data, which I am not.
As is so often the case, the ABC deployed an ad hominem argument that people who raise concern about migration levels are very likely to hate migrants and foreigners, “because the fear of foreigners is a old as time”. The segment was a veiled hint that such persons are probably nasty right-wing nut jobs.
The ABC selectively publicises one side of the debate and almost never mentions the obvious vested interests of the pro-growth side, while persistently attributing unworthy motives to the other side. Alan Kohler and Ian Verrender are rare exceptions at the ABC.
The reality is that the ABC regularly breaches its own news charter by de-emphasising Australia’s very high levels of immigration and population growth and ignoring the economic, social, and environmental costs that ought to be a major topic for a national news broadcaster.
Monday’s Media Watch was a prime example of the groupthink bias the ABC so often displays on this issue.
