Peta Credlin: More migrants without more infrastructure will be disastrous
Wages are stagnant, rent is going through the roof, and commutes are getting longer and Peta Credlin writes things are only going to get worse with the government failing to prepare for a huge influx of immigrants.
Opinion
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What do you call a country that’s ramping up immigration at the exact time it’s got a housing and health crisis? Wrong-headed would be the most polite way of putting it.
And what do you say about a government that is deliberately engineering an energy crisis at the same time that it’s presiding over record numbers of newcomers? Probably the most charitable description would be that it’s incapable of understanding that actions have consequences.
Australia might be the one country in the world to have successfully stopped a wave of illegal migration by boat but that certainly doesn’t mean that we’ve got legal migration right.
Since the end of the Howard era, where immigration ran at an average of 100,000 a year, it’s been ramped up to average close to 250,000 a year.
That means a city the size of Canberra is needed every two years just to accommodate the newcomers.
And if you think more than doubling our migrant intake since Howard was a big jump, then the news on Friday that it will likely clock 400,000 this year, in net terms, will make you scratch your head and ask, “Where is the proper planning from government to ensure we get this right and don’t make life harder for everyone here already?”
That’s because everyone who’s here other than as a tourist needs somewhere to live, a job, and a means of getting around.
If you’ve ever wondered why your wages are stagnant, your rent is going through the roof, and your commute is getting longer and harder, there’s an obvious explanation. It’s sustained high immigration, because more migrants mean downward pressure on wages, upward pressure on prices and more strain on infrastructure, especially housing and health services.
The Albanese government has raised the “official” permanent migration cap to 195,000 a year but that’s not the whole story.
This “permanent” group are the so-called skilled migrants (and their dependants) although we use the term “skilled” loosely because only about half of these are working in their area of supposed skill five years after arrival.
Then there’s almost as many again that come as temporary workers and students (many of whom are really here to work, not study, and are buying immigration rather than education). As the pandemic proved, the jobs migrants mostly fill are in cleaning, aged care, hospitality, driving and working in agriculture, not the high-end professions.
All up, Anthony Albanese expects 650,000 to arrive in the two years, even though the building industry, that will have to house them all, is in a crisis of its own.
New home sales are at their lowest level since 1996. Some 1500 building firms have gone bust since the middle of last year due to supply bottlenecks and fixed-price contracts.
The National Housing Corporation says we need at least 180,000 new homes a year, yet we’ll be lucky to build 140,000.
Is it any wonder that there are no rental vacancies and rents are going up at 10 per cent-plus a year?
Yet the big Australia ideology, like the climate ideology, that has completely captured officialdom, just grinds on, leading to needless daily difficulties in the lives of just about everyone.
That’s not just flat wages, high rents, and clogged roads and public transport, but no places in childcare, aged care or on health and hospital waiting lists.
Frankly, it was pathetic that Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, when releasing the government’s immigration review this week, refused to answer a question from the media about the population size that the government’s rapid migrant intake would deliver.
That’s right — we’ve more than quadrupled Australia’s yearly migrant intake over the past 16 years since Howard and yet there is no population plan, and the minister in charge won’t tell us if she’s pitching for 40 million, 60 million or 80 million-plus.
As well, on Friday, the Liddell coal-fired power station (supplying 10 per cent of NSW’s electricity) closed down for good. In just two years, so will Eraring (that currently supplies 25 per cent).
The politicians insist that there’s no need to worry — even though wind and solar power only works 30 per cent of the time on average, and even though the new gas-fired power station in the Hunter and Snowy 2.0 are way behind schedule and way over budget.
Yet with 650,000 more people drawing down power, let alone the millions of electric vehicles that governments want on the roads, blackouts are inevitable.
Then there’s the fact that the Albanese government is making it almost impossible for new coal mines and gas fields to open, even though coal and gas provide $200bn worth of export income a year and tens of billions in tax revenue to help fund measures like the NDIS.
The coming train wreck is obvious, yet politically correct governments seem incapable of changing policy.
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that ministers and officials are simply drowning when they can’t see the absurdity of ramping up immigration, without also ramping up house and infrastructure construction. And if it’s not realistic to ramp up construction, then we must scale back immigration to a level where infrastructure and services can cope.
There’s a real opportunity for the Liberal Opposition here, to come up with a clear policy that will resonate with voters and create an alternative: to take immigration back to the average of the Howard years at least until we have more capacity to cope.
And say to business that you might just have to pay locals more and train more young Australians, rather than just take the soft option of importing cheap labour from abroad.
Peter Dutton, over to you!
TODAY’S LIBERALS AREN’T A PATCH ON 2013’S VINTAGE
Federal Liberal deputy leader Sussan Ley has been doing what new oppositions should, travelling extensively around the country and listening attentively.
She’s right when she says that the Coalition’s last big win, back in 2013, was not solely the result of “Labor’s disastrous government descending into chaos”.
But she’s wrong when she goes on to deny what she calls “some nostalgic view where yesterday’s Liberal Party was supposedly brilliant compared to today”.
Sorry, Sussan, I reckon the 2013 Liberal Party was indeed brilliant compared to the mob today that is out of power in every mainland state and territory as well as federally.
As she herself went on to say: “We won in 2013 because we were a strong and united team that spoke very clearly to all Australians about our immediate priorities and the policies we would enact.
“There was no sniping from inside the tent. (And) there were no factional chiefs threatening to bring the party down.”
Dead right, Sussan, just so unlike now.
The big difference between 2013 and now is the Liberal Party then wasn’t just offering a critique; it was offering a solution.
It wasn’t just talking about cutting power prices; it had a clear policy to scrap Labor’s carbon tax.
It wasn’t just talking about stopping the boats, but had a clear policy to turn boats around so the people smugglers didn’t have a product to sell.
It’s not enough to be critical of a bad government; you’ve got to offer a clear alternative.
Back then, too, the Liberal Party was ready for a fight and didn’t think you won elections by being Labor-lite.
Perhaps the best adage I can offer is this, from my old boss, Tony Abbott: “A political party that doesn’t stand for something, ends up standing for nothing.”
Given he won the Liberals’ last landslide, I reckon it’s worth taking on board.
Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm
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