Immigration

The usual lobbyists and immigration influencers have slammed the Albanese government’s announced increase in fees for international students from $710 to $1,600.

Recall that Australia received an unprecedented 980,000 net overseas migrants over the last two calendar years: The May federal budget tipped that net overseas migration would moderate to 395,000 in 2023-24, followed by 260,000 in 2024-25: The latest data suggests that net overseas migration will blow well past the federal budget’s forecast.

SBS might as well be a taxpayer-funded lobbyist for Big Australia immigration given the propaganda that it continuously runs on the issue.

Last year, Home Affairs Minister Claire O’Neil lamented the temporariness of Australia’s migration system, arguing that it was holding the nation back.

Earlier this year, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) presented an analysis of the latest Census showing that Australia’s so-called skilled migrants are chronically underemployed and underpaid.

The ANU’s Alan Gamlen says that partner migrants should be used to solve skills shortages.

On Tuesday night, I had a wonderful 90-minute discussion with Martin North of Digital Finance Analytics on all things related to the Australian economy, politics, energy market, and housing market.

Over many years, opinion poll after opinion poll has shown that Australians do not support high levels of immigration.

Professor Peter McDonald is Australia’s leading flip-flopper on the topic of immigration (for example, see here, here and here).

It is amazing how similarly the migration debate is playing out in Canada and Australia.

Global ratings agency S&P Global warns that planned international student enrolment caps will negatively impact Australian university rankings and research funding.

The Housing Industry Association (HIA), “the voice of Australia’s residential building industry”, has attacked Australia’s skilled migration system.

During the height of the pandemic in 2020, current Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil declared the following from the opposition benches: “Immigration has been the special sauce in our national history”.

The Albanese government’s net overseas migration (NOM) projections have routinely underestimated actual results.

The 2021 Intergenerational Report (IGR) contained the following fantastical chart showing that each primary skilled migrant delivers $319,000 in net benefits to the Australian government, whereas every other permanent visa class (comprising more than 60% of the intake) costs the government money on average: There were some important caveats to this analysis.

Education Minister Jason Clare has confirmed that the federal government will specify limits on international enrolments at each of Australia’s 42 universities and potentially more than 1,000 vocational colleges.

Federal Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor has attacked the Coalition’s planned migration cuts, claiming they will worsen skills shortages.

The Resolution Foundation claims that record immigration into the UK is masking a crisis in productivity and has failed to improve Britons’ living standards.

We all know that Australia’s housing policy has been broken for decades, resulting in declining affordability and lower homeownership rates.

Teal Independent member for the federal Melbourne seat of Goldstein, Zoe Daniel, has followed in the footsteps of fellow Teal MP Allegra Spender and attempted to shut down the debate on immigration.