Danica De Giorgio:
Daniel Wild is Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs, and has this editorial.
Daniel Wild:
Well, Hurricane One Nation made landfall at the South Australian state election, and one nation has devastated the Liberal Party, a complete wipe out, but the Orange Hurricane came for Labour as well. In some previously safe Labour seats, voters fled in droves, with swings of 15% or more away from the Labour Party. And this is all about immigration. For over a decade, Australia’s out of touch political class has brought in record numbers of migrants, and this has been turbocharged since the pandemic. Think about this. From the end of the Second World War until 2007, the average annual net intake was 90,000. From 2008 until the pandemic, it was 230,000. And since COVID, it has been an astonishing 425,000 net migrants per year, almost five times the post-war average.
Do you reckon we have five times more roads, five times more GPs, and five times more houses? No, I don’t think so. None of this is to blame the migrants themselves. Of course, they want to come to Australia, the greatest nation on earth, for a better life. And Australia’s success has always depended upon integration working. But that becomes harder when the intake is this large and this vast. There was once a firm expectation that migrants would adapt to the Australian way of life, but this is breaking down. And we’re told it doesn’t matter, that we need migration to prop up the economy regardless of the consequences. And that if we cut it, the economy will crash. But ask yourself this. If mass migration is so good, then why are Australians getting poorer? Per person, economic growth has gone backwards in 10 of the last 13 quarters, and that decline is hammering households, and people are fed up.
A recent survey commissioned by the Institute of Public Affairs found that 60% of Australians say there are too many migrants in Australia, while just 17% reckon they want more. Even 59% of first generation migrants say levels are too high. These are people who chose to call Australia home, and they’re saying, “Pull up the drawbridge.” How did we get here? Well, a powerful coalition of interests all pushing in the same direction. Big business wants mass migration to lower wages and less need to train Australians. And if workers suffer, too bad. Universities want the rivers of gold from international students, and if Australian students suffer, too bad. Chambers of commerce want more spending and more retail trade. If Australian families suffer, too bad. And woke activists want mass migration because it can dilute mainstream Australian values, and so the seeds of division. If Australians suffer, well, to them, that’s good.
And of course, governments want a bigger population for more tax revenue to spend. But as ordinary Australians, the backbone of this country who pay the price. And what about the Prime Minister? What has he said about this? “Diversity is our strength.” But hang on a minute. If diversity really were our strengths, wouldn’t Australia be stronger than ever? I don’t know about you, sure doesn’t feel that way to me.
This transcript of Daniel Wild on Opinionated Sky News Australia from 3 April 2026 has been edited for clarity.
