‘Get a move on, Albo’: PM has key to solving nation’s housing crisis

Forget the adage, build it and they will come. Instead, they will come and build it, writes Kylie Lang, who has a message for the Prime Minister.

Foreign construction workers must have their visas fast-tracked so they can fix our nation’s housing crisis. Get a move on, Albo – we need immigrants who can build homes and we need them fast. Not only for themselves, mind you, but for the politically irksome number of Australians sleeping in cars and tents.

Forget the adage, build it and they will come. Instead, they will come and build it.

When Queensland Premier Steven Miles says it “makes sense to prioritise” rolling out the welcome mat for tradies, essentially backing in the Federal Government’s commitment to high levels of immigration, I beg to differ.

Why not solve our domestic cost of living crisis before ushering in newcomers? Containing the tsunami of immigration to a trickle until we get things right at home is what makes sense to me.

Anthony Albanese should be fast tracking visas for skilled foreign workers.

If Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner had addressed a gathering in the same City Hall ballroom where citizenship celebrations are held, he’d have received a standing ovation.

Instead, on Wednesday, he shared his views on social media, reaching a wider audience.

Cr Schrinner, whose father was born in Germany, called for an urgent rethink of our nation’s immigration policy. Not because he takes the petty and unproductive approach of railing against his opposing party – in this case, Labor – but enough is enough.

Cr Schrinner had the temerity to say what many are hesitant to say, lest they be labelled racist or hard-hearted.

And he did so without the incendiary language of the polarising Pauline Hanson in her 1996 maiden speech to Federal Parliament – “we are in danger of being swamped by Asians” – and two decades later – “now we are in danger of being swamped by Muslims”.

Rather, in a welcome and measured manner, Cr Schrinner posed the question: “Has immigration become a runaway train?”

Writing on Instagram, he referred to unprecedented ABS statistics which show permanent and long-term migration has added more than 100,000 people to Australia’s population in a single month.

“When you consider that Australia already has a serious housing shortage and public infrastructure like roads and hospitals are under huge pressure from population growth, the latest growth figures are nuts!,” Cr Schrinner said.

Housing is becoming a massive issue across the nation.

“My father came here as a migrant in 1960 and I fully understand immigration has been good for our nation, but it now risks becoming a runaway train.

“By any reasonable measure, 100,000 extra people in one month is simply too many, too soon.

“That’s like adding two full Suncorp Stadiums to the population in a single month.”

Cr Schrinner said it was time for the Federal Government to regain control of our immigration system and ensure local communities are adequately funded to “catch their breath and catch-up to the demand”.

“To be clear, we should still let people come here. But let them come when our cities, suburbs and towns are able to house them,” he said.

“I’ll happily welcome more people when the Federal Government – which receives 81 cents of every tax dollar collected – stumps-up to help state and local governments meet the extra demand for infrastructure and services.”

I was not surprised when reading comments on The Courier-Mail story that followed, including one which simply stated: “Schrinner for PM”.

Immigration is not the only factor impacting the housing shortage – which has been brewing for at least 20 years, with warnings by peak industry bodies falling on deaf political ears.

Higher interest rates aren’t helping.

But it’s an easy-enough equation for any fool to understand – the more people you have, the higher the demand for housing and the less affordable homes become.

A record 510,000 people came to Australia in the year to June 2023. In December the Albanese Government vowed to halve net overseas arrivals by mid-2025. Why only halve?

Meanwhile, as this newspaper revealed today, tent cities – their very existence unheard of in the once “lucky country” – are spreading and state government-provided emergency accommodation is proving unsafe and untenable.

The stark reality is we are not physically able to build the volume and type of housing we need for our population as it increases organically, let alone with high immigration.

Expecting migrants to solve a problem they cannot help but compound is ridiculous.

Kylie Lang is Associate Editor of The Courier-Mail
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