Daniel Wild On 5AA Mornings Discussing IPA Migration Analysis – 30 October 2023

On October 30, the Institute of Public Affairs’ Deputy Executive Director Daniel Wild joined Matthew Pantelis on FiveAA Mornings to discuss IPA analysis on immigration, which shows how record migration levels are exacerbating Australia’s housing shortage.

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.

Matthew Pantelis:

Let’s have a chat with Daniel Wild from the Institute of Public Affairs. Daniel, migration rates, obviously, a lot of people coming in. We don’t have the infrastructure in place to deal with a lot of it though, do we, in terms of housing, transport, everything else?

Daniel Wild:

Good morning. You’re right. We have a big problem in Australia and in South Australia at the moment, which is an unprecedented intake of migration. As you’re aware, the federal government has committed to a 1.5 million migrants coming in over the next four years, which would be the largest expansion to our population since federation. And there really is a lack of planning for the schools, roads, hospitals, and housing that will be needed. As your listeners would be aware, across South Australia at the moment, the average rents are around $460 a week. That’s just too much for a lot of students and those on lower incomes to be able to afford so it’s having a big impact on the ground. Some recent analysis that we provided saw that last financial year, Adelaide alone had around 15,000 international students arrive, which was the equivalent to around 90% of all new houses that were built in that year. So there is a real issue with the dramatic intake of migration and also international students with a real lack of planning for how they’re going to be accommodated.

Matthew Pantelis:

Yeah, almost four and five of people arriving are students. They’re coming in on student visas. So I mean, are they all ending up as students? There’s suggestions, and I hear this anecdotally, I don’t know how true it is, but they’re not ending up really in our universities or tertiary institutions. They’re getting jobs and working away, sending money back home.

Daniel Wild:

Yeah, it’s an interesting issue that you raise. There’s a couple of points there. The first is that clearly a lot of international students are in the job market, and fair enough, if you’re here, you need to work and provide for yourself. But again, it gets back to this planning issue, which is, well, they could be putting downward pressure on wages and they could potentially be taking jobs that otherwise would’ve been taken by Australians. There needs to be a proper planning around this. And indeed, the government’s own migration review published early this year said exactly that, that international students are in some contexts reducing job market availability of our own domestic students.

And look, the other point I’d make is, the universities themselves have a real responsibility here. They should be providing accommodation for students and they do provide some, but there are still a lot of students that come into the country and are competing on the rental market with everybody else. So I think universities which get the benefits of these students also need to pay the cost.

Matthew Pantelis:

Yeah. All right, so the government is due to release its review or release its findings from the review its position moving forward. What would you like to see in it?

Daniel Wild:

What I would like to see is a recognition of the stresses and strains Australians are experiencing from this never ending population growth underpinned by mass migration. As a nation, we are very welcoming and tolerant and migration has played a really important role in our nation’s history, but it has to be planned for and it has to have the consent of the community. And I think there’s a lot of people living in the suburbs and in particular the outer suburbs who are facing pressures with congestion. They’re having trouble getting their kids into local childcare, local schools. The time it takes you to get into your local GP is always increasing. They feel that they’re not being heard and we know that there’s a majority of Australians who believe our current intake is too high and they want to see a bit of a breather from the pressure that’s being put on them from this intake. So I’d like to see the government take into consideration some of these costs.

Matthew Pantelis:

Okay. Do you think we should continue with migration though? I mean, it sounds like you want it to stop, but surely we need at least skilled migrants to continue to come.

Daniel Wild:

I think we should continue with migration. Like I say, post-World War Two, we’ve welcomed millions of migrants into our nation who have enriched our economic and social lives. The question here is about the planning. We’ve already got a record intake. The migrant intake this year so far is the highest it’s ever been. It’s never been higher than what it is now and the government is just planning to bring in even more. So the issue is not the migrants themselves, because they’re coming here, have a better life for themselves and their families and I completely understand where they’re coming from. The issue here is a public policy one and we need to have proper infrastructure planning before we bring in such large numbers.

Matthew Pantelis:

Okay. Daniel, appreciate your time. Thank you.

Daniel Wild:

Pleasure. Thank you.

Matthew Pantelis:

Daniel Wild, Institute of Public Affairs.

This transcript with Daniel Wild talking on FiveAA Mornings from 30 October 2023 has been edited for clarity.