Danica De Giorgio:
Well, big Australia keeps getting bigger. In fact, it has soared to unprecedented levels. There have been more arrivals in the past 25 years than in the entire century before. In the middle of a cost of living and housing crisis, where on earth are we going to put the estimated 300,000 net overseas migrants who are on track to call Australia home this year? Daniel Wild is the Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs.
Daniel Wild:
If you were under the impression that Australia’s migration pressures were easing, well, you need to think again. The reality is they are intensifying and the system is out of control. New data reveals a backlog of around 425,000 people seeking permanent residency in our nation. Now, this is not a temporary bottleneck. It’s a warning sign that the system is not working.
Now, Australians have been told that high migration is necessary to address our skills shortage. But when you examine the numbers, that argument falls apart. Of the 425,000 backlog, just 59,000 are employer-sponsored skill migrants and 7,000 are independent skilled workers. So in total, just 66,000 or 15% are in the skilled category. The other 85% are overwhelmingly made up of the family reunion streams. To paraphrase Brian Fantana from the Anchorman, the government’s immigration policy can be summarised as 15% of the time. It works every time.
So let’s be clear, this is not a skills programme, it’s a population programme. The Business Council of Australia warned that the backlog is creating uncertainty for business. Its chief executive, Bran Black, has said it creates skill shortages. Now, that’s a legitimate concern, but it’s incomplete. What is consistently missing from this debate is the position of Australians themselves. There are more than 650,000 Australians currently unemployed, yet too often their interests are treated as secondary and afterthought in a system increasingly shaped by the demands of large organisations seeking easier access to foreign workers. A serious migration policy must start with a simple principle. Australians should come first in their own country. The challenge becomes even clearer when we look at the scale of change.
Now, recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that more migrants, think about this, more migrants have arrived in Australia since the year 2000 than the entire period from Federation in 1901 to the end of the 20th century. This is a profound shift. And today, nearly nine million Australians are first generation migrants, about a third of our population. 25 years ago, that figure was 4.5 million or 23% of our population. So in the space of a single generation, Australia’s overseas born population has more than doubled. Now, it’s no surprise so many people want to come here. Australia is the greatest nation on earth, but the capacity of a nation to absorb migration is not unlimited. It depends on housing, infrastructure, social cohesion, and above all else, a shared sense of national purpose.
And when intake outpaces capacity, that doesn’t strengthen our country. It weakens it. What Australia needs is not a bigger Australia, but a better Australia. One that is confident enough to set clear limits, disciplined enough to enforce them, and focused on putting its own citizens first. We have a system that is expanding without sufficient regard to its consequences and a debate that often ignores the legitimate concerns of Australians, and that needs to change.
Because migration is not a technical issue. It goes to the heart of who we are as a nation and whether we are prepared to make tough decisions that are in the long-term interests of the Australian people.
Danica De Giorgio:
Absolutely. And nobody ever voted for a big Australia.
This transcript of Daniel Wild on Opinionated Sky News Australia 1 May 2026 has been edited for clarity.
