In this interview, Brianna McKee appeared on The Vikki Campion Show TNT Tv to discuss the IPA’s research on immigration.
All media appearances posted onto the IPA website are directly related to the promotion and dissemination of IPA research.
Below is a transcript of the interview.
Vikki Campion:
We’re back now with Brianna McKee. She is with the Institute of Public Affairs. She is, and I’ve just lost, she is the National Manager for Generation Liberty. And the IPA has just released this new research highlighting record migration intake under the current Albanese government. Brianna, welcome to the show.
Brianna McKee:
Thanks so much for having me.
Vikki Campion:
Well, your research indicates this record migration intake, 1.15 million under the current government. At the same time, the IPA has said, “Well, the government is really relying on migration-driven economic growth, which is leading to a per capita recession.” Can you tell us how this surge in migration is actually affecting Australians’ living standards?
Brianna McKee:
Yes. So the key point here, and what IPA research has shown is that the Albanese government has overseen this record increase in population growth, and that’s 1.15 million migrants since the last federal election, which was in May 2022.
So to put this in perspective, this is a 62% increase on the last record, and that was set in the first term of the Rudd-Gillard government. And at that time, net overseas-
Vikki Campion:
62%.
Brianna McKee:
That’s right. And net overseas arrivals at that point were at about 700,000. And now, if you look at the Hawke-Keating government, in just 27 months, the Albanese government has brought in more migrants than that government did in 13 years.
So we’ve seen the highest intake in migration on record. That means that more than one migrant a minute is entering the country. And asylum seeker arrivals also reached a record in May this year. So this is the problem that we face at the moment with migration.
Vikki Campion:
It is something that is putting so much pressure on Australians and it’s putting pressure on people because you feel like if you say anything about it that therefore you get this term thrown at you. Terms are thrown around, racist, xenophobic, but it is really showing that we’ve got this immense pressure on our housing. We have this immense pressure on our infrastructure.
We just had guests, Matthew Camenzuli on just then, and he made the point that we’ve got a housing shortage and at the same time, our house building companies are going broke with bankruptcies. I mean, what solutions or what policy is necessary to address these challenges?
Brianna McKee:
Yeah. Well, I think a good policy that we could start thinking about is obviously … Well, obviously, we need a reassessment. We need to set a plan around migration. The Albanese government promised to bring it back to manageable levels, and they’ve already exceeded their own migration targets.
It’s not surprising that a government would break their promises. They do it regularly, but at this point in time, it’s really impacting mainstream Australians in a serious way. And as you mentioned, the housing crisis is pushed up by migration. More people means more competition. People are fighting over a scarcer resource. So one solution could be to tie migration to the number of new housing developments.
Vikki Campion:
That’s a good idea. And because your research also points out that the current intake or the IPA’s research also points out that the current intake also doesn’t match up with your social services. And we’ve had people who are at that frontline of service delivery on the show before. Teachers especially saying, “Well, the problem is that we can have all these people coming over here, but we don’t have any ability for having a teacher who speaks their language also being able to teach in their language.” So then they come over and their first job is to learn English, which means they go backwards through the education system, so it actually brings a bunch of complexities.
Brianna McKee:
That’s right. And I think, look, the key issue here is it’s not the migrants. I mean, of course, they want to come here. Australia is a great country, so it’s not their fault. The problem here is with planning, and that’s the government’s responsibility.
And what we’ve seen is if you’re going to bring millions of migrants in, then you need the hospitals, you need the schools, you need the roads, you need the houses in order to cater for those new people. And at the same time, as we have this record migration, housing approvals are at 1980s levels. So the government really needs to work on this, because if you’re going to bring people in, you need to be able to provide the services that they require. And if you don’t, if you don’t plan for it, then you will see a breakdown in social cohesion.
Vikki Campion:
Oh, absolutely. And this is a thing with it, like you just mentioned, the housing approvals. We were watching the new Minister for Housing, Clare O’Neil, and she was talking about how they need to do better and they need to improve it. But I just wonder how much the federal government can actually achieve at that level when so much of housing approvals comes down to what’s rejected or approved at either a council level or a state level.
Brianna McKee:
That’s true, but the federal government can set incentives for the state and councils in order to encourage more housing approvals in order to discourage the regulation and red tape that is around the housing industry.
It’s interesting. At the moment, we’ve been hearing in the news about demographic decline, and the economists are saying that this is actually tied to housing prices going up, and that, of course, is tied to migration.
So if you look at the housing prices, they’ve reached record levels in all the capital cities. The median housing price in Sydney is over $1 million. In Brisbane and Canberra, it’s at about 830,000. Melbourne, 800,000. So this is a serious problem.
Migration is a serious contributing factor, and there’s a clear link between social issues, demographic decline, migration, and the falling birth rate. So that’s an important thing that the government needs to consider. Family should be at the forefront of their reassessment when they are looking at migration.
Vikki Campion:
Yeah. That’s a really good point, Brianna, the falling birth rate. You wonder how much of that is because people don’t feel stable, that they can’t buy, or they can’t afford a home that they can raise a child in. They can’t afford a backyard, definitely. Maybe out of stretches, an apartment that they could buy. But in the major cities where there is employment, there isn’t that ability to be able to get in the market.
I don’t blame people for waiting longer to have kids or not wanting to have kids, because it’s so hard and so expensive. And then when you do, the Labour government in Parliament today, oh, one of the MPs was up there talking about how they’ve got more women in the workforce than ever before. It’s like, “Yeah. No, of course you do. Shit. We all have to work, because that’s the only way we can pay the bills. I would love to just be a stay-at-home mom and just hang out with the kids all day, but nobody can afford that anymore.”
Brianna McKee:
No, that’s absolutely correct. And today, the government views women through a commercial lens and they see employment as empowerment. Motherhood is described as a penalty or as unpaid work. But instead, what the government are really talking about when they use those sort of politically opportunistic catchphrases is unpaid taxes or a penalty on the national GDP.
And so, this undervaluing of motherhood is part of the cultural aspect behind this fall and the birth rates. But then of course, there’s the economic side of things, and migration is a contributor to that.
Vikki Campion:
Yeah. Yeah. Australia has, if you look globally … I just want to quickly touch on this. I feel globally, Australia has a higher percentage of foreign-born residents compared to countries like New Zealand, Canada, and the US. So I just thought that was interesting.
Brianna McKee:
Yeah, that’s really interesting. So in Australia, our foreign born population is about 31% right now, that’s up from 22% in the 1980s. And then Canada is at 21%. New Zealand at 29%, but countries like the US is at 15% and the UK at 14%. So Australia is definitely in the lead here.
Vikki Campion:
Wow.
Brianna McKee:
And obviously, it’s going to have big social cohesion issues. If you’re bringing a lot of people in at a fast rate, it’s harder to assimilate them. It’s just the basic facts of the matter. And so, yeah, the government needs to reassess how they are bringing in people and how they are going to assimilate them. And Australia has a much higher foreign-born population than most other countries.
Vikki Campion:
Yeah. Wow. I mean, the IPA is arguing that the current migration levels are unsustainable and that there are significant potential long-term consequences if this trend continues. What would you guys like to see the government do to reduce its reliance on migration?
Brianna McKee:
Well, we want to see a reassessment of the migration programme. We want to see more planning around this. I mean, obviously, it’s at record-breaking rates at the moment, and that’s incredibly problematic. We’re starting to see sort of the breakdown of the social fabric with more activism on the streets, more activism on university campuses. So I think we would start with saying, “Well, let’s tie migration levels to the number of new housing developments.” And that seems like a reasonable place to start, making sure that you have the infrastructure to support the people that you’re bringing in.
Vikki Campion:
It does seem like a reasonable place to start, Brianna. It sounds very reasonable. So why isn’t it being done? It’s wild that they’ve decided we’re going to put this immense new pressure onto our housing and onto our infrastructure, but we’re going to invite all these people over, but we’re not going to look after them when they get here.
There’s definitely one fella who’s over here on a Section 457 visa, I was talking to him and he was saying how long it took. He had to go to take his sister to the hospital and how long it took for him to get a doctor’s appointment. And I was like, “Yeah, that’s how it is.”
So this is the thing, it doesn’t just have an impact on Australians, it has an impact on people who have made that choice to move over here looking for something better.
Brianna McKee:
Yes. I think responding to your question, why is it being done, I think it’s because migration is being used as a Band-Aid solution to mask Australia’s poor economic performance.
So we’re currently in an extended period of GDP decline, and that’s been over four or five quarters, so that’s over a year. And what this means for Australians at an individual level is that, basically, they’re falling behind. They’re not doing as well as they used to be doing.
And so while the economy is getting bigger, it’s getting boosted by the migration numbers, each Australian is worse off. So if you look at the economy as a pie, the economy is growing, but each Australian’s slice of the pie is much smaller.
Vikki Campion:
Amazing. Brianna McKee, thank you so much for joining us today on TNT.
Brianna McKee:
Thanks so much for having me.
Vikki Campion:
This is the Vikki Campion Show on TNT.
This transcript with Brianna McKee talking on The Vikki Campion Show TNT Tv from 15 August 2024 has been edited for clarity.
