Opinion: Marchers aren’t Nazis, they just want pollies to keep promises

When politicians dismiss legitimate protesters as bigots, they give oxygen to the more extreme views, writes Matt Canavan. VOTE IN OUR POLL

In May last year Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told ABC Brisbane he would halve migration numbers to 260,000 in the coming financial year.

We do not have the official figures for the 2024-25 financial year yet, but based on arrival numbers to Australia, analysts estimate our net overseas migration numbers will be around 350,000.

So Mr Albanese missed his promise by about 100,000 people.

This is the principal reason Australians hit the streets by the thousands last weekend. Most Australians are not neo-Nazis. They are not in the thrall of some far-right influencers. And they are not racists, as many Labor politicians implied they were last week.

Australians are fed up though with politicians not delivering on their promises. Australians are frustrated that their children cannot find an affordable home and may never be able to own their own home. Australians are sick and tired of having to wait for hours, and sometimes weeks, to see a doctor in a hospital.

The vast majority of the Australians marching last week are not against migration, they are against mass migration. They have reasonable political grievances about Australia’s population growth rate and what that might mean for our living standards, especially for our children. They do not want Australia’s laid-back and harmonious culture to change if we take in people at such a rate that assimilation becomes impossible.

Yet Labor ministers lined up to accuse the protesters of spreading hate. Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles said people had the right to protest but not to spread hatred.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said nothing could be less Australian.

Environment Minister and Queensland senator Murray Watt accused the rallies of spreading hate.

Last time I checked, Australians had the right to hate their own government.

When politicians dismiss the legitimate complaints of people by labelling them as bigots, they give oxygen to the more extreme views that hijacked some of the protests last weekend.

The best thing the political class could do to silence and ostracise extreme right-wing views would be to solve the problems that the people are complaining about. The Australian government controls the borders. We saw during Covid-19 that we can reduce the migration rate to zero if we want.

So, Mr Albanese has all the power to deliver on his promise to limit migration to 260,000, but his government botched the reopening of our borders post-Covid-19. A good start to help douse the anger of these protests would be for Mr Albanese to just deliver on what he said he would do.

Even if he did that, however, that number would be too high. Australia only built 180,000 houses last year. When you take into account Mr Albanese’s migration plan (260,000), our natural population increase (100,000) and the number of homes that become dilapidated or are demolished each year (about 20,000), this is far too few homes. When something becomes short in supply, prices go up. Rents have increased by more than 20 per cent since Labor came to office.

Australia is not building enough new hospital beds either. The number of hospital beds have increased by only 3 per cent since Covid-19 while our population grew by 6 per cent.

Excessive migration also puts downward pressure on wages especially for the poorest and those with the fewest skills. Real Australian wages have gone back to 2012 levels mostly through inflation. But when an excessive number of people arrive, the supply of labour increases and puts further downward pressure on wages. The rich among us might enjoy the easy access to an Uber, but for the poorest it just makes it so much tougher to survive.

Australians have generally accepted a large migration rate because we have historically been good at assimilating new arrivals to our country’s values. But our ability to do this is a function of how many people come to Australia and from how many diverse cultural backgrounds. Australia’s welcome mat is being tested to the limit.

Australia has a distinct culture that was forged in the struggles of our Indigenous and European ancestors to tame a harsh, unforgiving and remote land. Despite these challenges they turned this island into one of the great modern nations of the world.

Australians believe in a fair go, standing by mates, healthy disrespect for authority and judging people on their merits, not who their parents are. I, and many other Australians, want us to maintain this distinct culture.

The isolated voices on our fringes are not the greatest threat to our social harmony, it is the powerful voices with an agenda to marginalise our unique Australian way of life.

Matt Canavan is an LNP senator for Queensland