Advertisement
Over the weekend, Immigration Minister Tony Burke was interviewed by Sky News, where he boasted that “we’ve already got (immigration numbers) down 45% from where they were, and as the budget papers make clear, we continue to get them lower”.
The hilarity of Burke’s statement was that every federal budget under Labor has massively undercooked migration forecasts, such that more than 550,000 people have arrived in Australia than Labor forecast in its first budget in October 2022.
Therefore, for Burke to claim that “the budget papers make clear, we continue to get them lower” is the ultimate piss-take.
Advertisement
The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers
Cancel at any time through our billing provider, Stripe
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.
Advertisement