Andrew Bolt: The Albanese government has unleashed the greatest wave of immigrants in our history for reasons that make no sense

The Albanese government knows that more immigrants means more money for itself but it’s a lazy, dumb and destructive policy with no end.

Hands up if you’re amazed so many Australians can’t find a place to rent.

Mystified that this could happen after we last year – here’s a clue – let in another 400,000 immigrants?

Yes, total surprise. Not.

Who’d have thunk that all those newcomers, and another 350,000 to come this year, would want a place to stay?

Well, not the Albanese government, which has unleashed the greatest wave of immigrants in our history for reasons that make no sense and will hurt a lot of Australians, and not just because we’re short of homes.

Many Australians can’t find a place to rent. Picture: iStock

Where did this government think all these immigrants, temporary workers and foreign students would sleep? In our streets? In their cars?

Well, turns out they like a flat or a house. Strange people.

And now look. Gosh! We have a rental crisis. Rents are soaring. Vacancies for rental properties in big cities – where migrants overwhelming tend to go – are at record lows.

Every weekend, young Australians race from inspection to inspection trying to find a place to rent at a price they can afford, but find nothing. Rents last year jumped by more than 10 per cent and are rising still.

And what’s the Albanese government’s response? You’ve got to laugh – or cry – at how pathetic it all is.

It promises a harebrained Housing Australia Future Fund, to let the government raise and invest $10bn to hopefully earn $500m a year to build 6000 social and affordable dwellings each year.

Wow. More debt on top of the nearly $1 trillion we have already. What could go wrong?

But hang on … $500m for 6000 homes … er, that’s just $83,300 to build each house or apartment. There’s a hole in that bucket, dear Albo.

And 6000 homes in a year after getting 400,000 immigrants, plus lots of babies, doesn’t come close to what’s needed.

You’ve got to laugh – or cry – at Anthony Albanese’s pathetic response to the housing crisis. Picture: Gary Ramage

So where will all the extra homes come from? At what cost now that building materials cost a bomb?

But that’s not the only pain from this massive population gain, thanks to a government that treats immigration policy like a giant Ponzi scheme to turn a fast buck.

Look at the crowding of our cities. The mega urban sprawl. The packed public transport. The infilling of our once-leisurely suburbs with new homes squashed into the tiniest gardens. The ever-pressing demand to build more roads and rail to cope.

Add to that the fact many of these immigrants compete for jobs and so tend to keep wages lower.

And do I dare mention our cultural disintegration as we become a nation of badly assimilated tribes?

What’s more, immigrants add to our global warming emissions – think of the electricity they need and the cars they’ll drive. So the Albanese government will have to cut our emissions even more brutally to meet its targets and that will hurt, too.

How does any of this make sense?

The Albanese government has drunk the Big Australia Kool-Aid that’s peddled by companies that build houses and sell the stuff that’s in them. For them, more immigrants means more dollars.

There is major pain from our massive population gain.

The government also knows that more immigrants means more money for itself, when it’s drowning in debt.

But what’s good for politicians and big business may not be good for everyone else.

The extra growth from extra migrants works out as not much extra money for each of us when you divide the bigger pie among the bigger population.

Oh, but the excuses we’re given for packing in more immigrants.

We’re getting older, we’re told. We need these 400,000 younger immigrants to keep Australian retirees in comfort. We need some to literally feed Australians in our nursing homes and wipe their bottoms, because which young Australians will do that work?

But like I said, it’s just a giant Ponzi scheme.

The 400,000 immigrants we bring in now to look after us will soon get old, too.

Then what? We’ll need to bring in even more to look after them, too. And then more still to look after the last lot until … what, exactly? Until we have a population of 50 million? Or 100 million? More?

Oops – no government minister will actually tell you how many Australians will be enough. They always want more.

This seems a lazy, dumb and destructive policy with no end.

It’s a scam that already keeps young Australians out of their own homes. Keep going this hard, and Australia will hardly feel like home, either.