Jamila Rizvi – the daughter of Big Australia booster, Abul Rizvi – has penned an article in Fairfax bemoaning the fall in Australia’s birth rate: Australia’s birth rate has been falling for almost a decade, reaching its lowest point in recorded history in 2017 at below 1.75… The reduced immigration program promised by the current
In the years leading up to the May federal election, the Morrison Government and its supporters used Australian Taxation Office (ATO) data to lobby against Labor’s policy changes to negative gearing, claiming that those earning $80,000 were ‘middle-income earners’. We also witnessed National’s MP, Barnaby Joyce, recently claim that he is struggling to support his
Earlier this year, the Morrison Government announced that is would cut Australia’s non-humanitarian permanent migrant intake by 30,000 to 160,000 in order to “restrain population growth pressures in Sydney and Melbourne in particular”. However, while the non-humanitarian permanent migrant intake has been cut, net overseas migration (NOM) and net long-term arrivals continue to balloon, running
Cross-posted from The Conversation: The Department of Home Affairs has begun taking steps to outsource its visa processing to private service providers. This move has sparked an important national debate on transparency, accountability and profiteering in the immigration system. The proposed changes will involve private service providers processing certain “low-risk” visas, rather than department staff.
The planned privatisation of Australia’s visa system has been delayed until next year after a web of conflict-of-interests were discovered across the Morrison Government: The tender bid, managed by the department, is now at arm’s length from Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Immigration Minister David Coleman because of their long personal and professional relationships with
One of the biggest immigration failures of the Coalition’s reign has been the massive blow-out in bridging visas, which are typically handed out to those awaiting decisions on their applications for permanent residency. As shown in the next chart, the number of bridging visas on issue has more than doubled over the five years to
Yesterday’s annual productivity report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that multifactor productivity (MFP) – the key driver of Australian – fell by 0.4% in 2018-19, with labour productivity also registering its first ever fall of 0.2%, or 0.8% when adjusted for the quality of work: The result led to the usual head-scratching
On Friday, the ABS released its Personal Income of Migrants survey for 2016-17, which tracks the median earnings of permanent migrants aged 15 years and over who have arrived in Australia between 1 January 2000 and 30 June 2019. According to the ABS, permanent migrants earned a lowly $49,438 median income in 2016-17: Australia’s 1.9
Labor has called for an urgent review of the temporary visa system after the latest report from the Australian Population Research Institute (APRI) revealed a high concentration of temporary migrant workers across large swathes of the economy (see below table). From The Australian: Labor has called for an urgent examination of the temporary visa regime
Abul Rizvi, former Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration and one of the architects of Australia’s faux ‘skilled’ migration program, has penned an article claiming that the $53,900 wage floor for regional skilled migrants is too high: On 16 November 2019, the Government’s much-touted regional migration visas took effect. One of these is a
Predictably, Australia’s towns are unhappy about the Morrison Government’s farcical deeming of Perth and the Gold Coast as “regional” despite being bonafide metropolitan areas: Small regional towns like Swan Hill in Victoria are now competing for migrant workers against cities like Perth and the Gold Coast… Jason King’s business needs workers with skills, but it’s
With Melbourne’s population having soared by around 600,000 people over the past five years: And the city turning into one giant construction site, a Victorian parliamentary committee is trying to pin the blame for Melbourne’s growing congestion on ride sharing services like Uber: The growth of ride-share vehicles since Victoria’s taxi industry was deregulated two
Dr Bob Birrell and David McCloskey have released a an excellent report, entitled Australia’s ‘Jobs and growth’ strategy: pathway to a low productivity economy, which argues that surging low-skilled migration is undermining wage growth and creating a low-productivity economy. Below are key extracts: Attempts to kick start growth in the Australian economy have so far
MB has frequently ridiculed the push by the Morrison Government towards decentralisation, noting that this is a pipe dream based on the settlement pattern of new migrants, which have overwhelmingly chosen to flood the major cities: Well, the situation is even worse than presented above with new ANU research of settlement patterns showing that around
With the Morrison Government planning to privatise Australia’s visa system, Australians living in the United Kingdom – which privatised its visa system in 2014 – are warning the Australian Government not to go down the same path: Australians are suffering delays, huge expense and frustration in the UK’s newly privatised visa processing system – and
Economist Gerard Minack has warned that the huge rise in labour supply from mass immigration is holding down Australian wages: Gerard Minack, an economist and principal at Minack Associates, said when compared with the boomer generation, the economic choices of recent generations are much more limited. “Well, young Australians are facing a hell of a
New modelling from a group of academics from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) suggests that Australia’s mass immigration policy is making Australians poorer and raising inequality: We modelled four development scenarios for Australia through to 2030: “Growth at all Costs”, emphasising economic growth “Green Economy”, emphasising environmental outcomes “Inclusive Growth”, emphasising social equality
Yesterday, the lobby group for Australia’s migration agents – the Migration Institute of Australia (MIA) – attacked the $53,900 minimum salary attached to the Coalition’s new regional visas: The Migration Institute of Australia has criticised the decision to require regional-based migrants to earn $53,900 a year in order to qualify for permanent residency. “While the
Australia’s much maligned ‘skilled’ visa system is about to become even more unskilled, judging by Morrison Government’s new region visas: New regional visas have launched this week, giving migrants in more occupations a chance to stay in Australia… Migrants need to commit to life in regional Australia for at least three years… But if they
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has penned an op-ed in the AFR championing the “three P’s” of 1) boosting productivity; 2) raising workforce participation; and 3) increasing the population via immigration, to see off the nation’s ageing population: As a nation, we need to effectively leverage the three P’s – population, participation and productivity – to meet
Another report has emerged of “chronic exploitation” of migrant workers on Australia’s farms: Australian authorities are investigating whether dozens of workers from small, remote Fijian villages may be victims of labour exploitation after allegedly being deceptively recruited to work on farms in north-west Victoria. …a local Victorian MP said worker exploitation was a “chronic” issue
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and again and expecting a different result, then Aussie economists are bonkers, at Domain: BIS Oxford chief economist Sarah Hunter said the wage figures were dismal, adding they meant the RBA would have to take official interest rates down to 0.5 per cent next
For years we have been told that Australia’s visa system is world-leading because it provides the economy with vital skills and plugs so-called critical labour shortages. This view is generally based on a superficial examination of Australia’s permanent migration program, whereby the ‘skilled’ stream accounts for around two-thirds of the intake: The reality paints an
Federal Immigration Minister David Coleman will today officially launch its Global Talent Scheme (GTS) visa program, which will fast track permanent residency visas for 5,000 “high-skilled” people from around the world: The program aims to establish a high-skilled migration stream that will fast-track visas for 5000 of the world’s best and brightest every year, with
We noted earlier this week how the Morrison Government’s much vaunted regional visa scheme had turned into a farce, with the Government manipulating the data and deeming Perth and Gold Coast “regional” despite being bonafide metropolitan areas: Perth is Australia’s fourth largest city with a population of 2.1 million people. And while the Gold Coast
Feverish defender of mass immigration and a ‘Big Australia’, Dr Liz Allen, has hypocritically decried rising inequality across Sydney, where basic infrastructure and services are failing to keep pace with demand: Professor Nick Parr, a demographer at Macquarie University, said the areas of Sydney among the most advantaged 10 per cent nationwide saw average reductions
Immigration Minister, David Coleman, has declared the Coalition’s regional visa push a triumphant success and has announced that the cities of Perth and the Gold Coast will now also be declared regional: The federal government is increasing intake under its regional migration program from 23,000 to 25,000 after the initial success of the initiative and
For the past five years, MB has frequently derided Australia’s ‘skilled’ visa system, which we have demonstrated is poorly targeted, ineffective, and is failing in its stated purpose of alleviating chronic ‘skills shortages’ across the economy. Our concerns have been centred around three main areas. First, around half of all migrants granted visas under the
Another report has emerged highlighting how Malaysians are manipulating Australia’s electronic travel authority (ETA) visa system to stay long-term in Australia: Australia’s population of 64,600 lapsed visa holders is more than triple the size of last year’s refugee intake, newly released Immigration data has revealed. Malaysian visa overstayers were the most highly represented, with around
CBA interest rate strategists, Jarrod Kerr and Adam Donaldson, claim that mass immigration is Australia’s “fountain of youth” and will prevent housing prices from falling. From The Australian: Back in January 2017, the interest rate strategists at the Commonwealth Bank published a Global Markets Research paper called Demography is Destiny for Interest Rates, But Immigration
