“The expected surge of New Zealand migration on the back of the Federal Government’s softening of citizenship rules will add even more pressure to Australia’s schools, roads, hospitals, and housing,” said Daniel Wild, Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs.
New Institute of Public Affairs’ analysis of changes to citizenship laws announced by the Federal Government in April shows approximately 130,000 additional New Zealanders are estimated to migrate to Australia from 2023-2027.
“Australians pride themselves as welcoming and tolerant, however they recognise infrastructure and housing has not kept pace with a rapid and unsustainable expansions to migration,” said Daniel Wild, Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs.
Following the release of the Federal Government’s migration review, which called for a rapid expansion of migration to fill worker shortages, IPA analysis of National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation data shows there is set to be a gap of 212,800 dwellings between 2023 and 2028. This will be made worse by the expected migration surge from New Zealand.
“The Federal Government’s migration review missed an opportunity to support getting more Australians into work, and looks set to continue the short-sighted and lazy approach of plugging Australia’s worker shortage simply with more migration,” said Mr Wild.
“Any proper, comprehensive review of migration should have considered the impact tax and red tape barriers have on stopping Australian pensioners, veterans, and students from re-entering the workforce, and the contribution they can make to alleviating the worker shortage.”
“Migration has and will always continue to play an important role in our national story, but the Federal Government has committed to a dramatic ramping up of migration intake without any plan for where new arrivals will live and how vital services are going to cope with the influx.”
“Our leaders have the tools to tackle Australia’s unprecedented worker shortage crisis via simple and effective reforms, such as cutting red-tape to allow our pensioners, veterans, and students to work, rather than relying on migration, which will stretch our already failing infrastructure.”
“With this further rapid expansion of our migration settings, Australian pensioners, veterans and students miss out again,” Mr Wild said.
To download the IPA’s research on Australia’s worker shortage crisis click here
