Groome MP Garth Hamilton proposes two-speed migration intake based on rental vacancies

Ahead of the Coalition’s big reveal of its immigration policy, one MP says Australia’s migration intake should follow a two-speed system dictated by housing metrics, like rental vacancies.

Garth Hamilton says his policy could tie ‘housing and immigration’ together.

Australia’s migration intake should operate on a two-speed system which could lower immigration if rental vacancies declined to a certain point, federal MP Garth Hamilton has proposed.

His comments come ahead of the Coalition’s highly-anticipated immigration policy, which will be revealed in the coming weeks by Home Affairs spokesman Jonathon Duniam and Immigration spokesman Paul Scarr.

Mr Hamilton said the policy was a way for “housing and immigration to be tied together in policy,” with a business-as-usual migration intake and a second threshold which “acknowledged the impact that immigration is having on housing”.

“Clearly where we are at the moment would be in tier two,” he told The Daily Telegraph, adding that the current “mathematics of immigration” were “wrong”.

Although he was open to “a number of indicators,” he put forward a “threshold limit” on rental vacancy rates as the top contender, and listed housing completions as another option.

“The pain that I’m hearing the loudest in my community is around rental vacancies, (and it) speaks to the most vulnerable in our community,” he said.

“The people who are being hurt most are younger Australians but the stories that break your heart are renting pensioners, who have paid tax all their life.

Mr Hamilton said migration levels should be set on a two-speed system that was measured according to housing metrics. Picture: Martin Ollman

“They’ve got fixed incomes, rents have gone through the roof and inflation has squeezed their golden years.”

He said the threshold could operate through a target, similar to the Reserve Bank’s target inflation band.

Mr Hamilton noted that while the rental vacancy for a “healthy market is 3 per cent,” the current rate was at 1.4 per cent, according to SQM research.

“Australia is quite comfortable with the RBA band and understands that different monetary policy is likely to apply, and people understand that there is a change when you start to see movements outside of that band of monetary policy.”

Immigration spokesman Paul Scarr and home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam (pictured) are currently consulting on the Coalition’s immigration policy. Picture: Martin Ollman

It’s expected the Coalition will not set net overseas or permanent migration targets when it launches its highly-anticipated policy in the next few weeks, and instead focus on the principles supporting its plans.

While Mr Duniam didn’t outwardly approve the policy, he said that “unlike the Labor Party, the Coalition encourages backbenchers to come up with their own ideas to inform our policy development”.

Mr Duniam described the current settings as “shambolic” and said change was needed so Australia’s “infrastructure, housing, health, education and other services can finally cope again”.

“The Coalition is working on changes to immigration policy that will actually put Australia’s interests first and be sustainable,” he said.

“These will represent much-needed changes to the ad hoc and chaotic approach under the Labor Party, which even saw new permanent and long-term arrivals exceed one million people over a 12 month period in 2022 and 2023.”

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Originally published as Groome MP Garth Hamilton proposes two-speed migration intake based on rental vacancies