‘Unsayable’: QandA panellist reveals what she would have said to Aussie dad’s immigration plea

An Aussie dad drew a standing ovation for a question on QandA about immigration. Now one panellist has revealed the ‘unsayable’ truth.

A panellist on last week’s QandA has revealed what she would have said to Aussie dad Morgan Cox, who drew a standing ovation for his heartbreaking plea for the government to cut immigration before “every regular working Australian is homeless”.

Parnell Palme McGuinness, a communications adviser and columnist, said while she did not get an opportunity to answer Mr Cox’s question on Monday, politicians must “listen to dads like Morgan” if they want to fix the housing crisis.

“There are many social issues that look very different from the bottom of the socio-economic heap than they look when you’re nearer the top,” McGuinness wrote in an op-ed for The Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday.

“Housing is very much in this category. Yet the insights from the ground level, when they are passed up, are mostly ignored. They often sit awkwardly with the policy envelope available to politicians — not because they’re unworkable, but because they’re politically unsayable.”

Morgan Cox said he was on the verge of homelessness. Picture: ABC

Mr Cox, a father-of-one from the NSW central coast, told the ABC talk show panel that his rent had recently gone up by $180 a week, or nearly $10,000 a year, and he was on the verge of homelessness despite working two jobs.

He recounted going to inspections to try to find cheaper places, only to be outnumbered by “dozens of people lined up”, many of them immigrants “and they have plenty more money than I can possibly get”.

“One more rent increase and my family, my one-year-old baby, we’re facing homelessness and we’ve got nowhere to go,” Mr Cox said.

“My family has already been forced out of Sydney for the same reasons. I want to know is the government going to cut immigration to match housing availability or are we just going to keep going until every regular working Australian is homeless?”

The question drew a tepid response from the panel, with Health Minister Mark Butler insisting the government had been “working very had to get immigration levels down to something we think the country can manage”.

Health Minister Mark Butler. Picture: ABC

The final net overseas migration number for 2023-24, published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in December, came in at 446,000, after a record 536,000 in 2022-23.

Net overseas migration is comprised of a fixed annual permanent intake, currently set at 185,000 places, and temporary migration.

Both major parties have promised to rein in the record numbers, which have largely been driven by a flood of international students on temporary visas — a significant proportion of whom go on to seek permanent status.

Former NSW Treasurer Matt Kean said the issue was “more complex” than immigration and “the reality is we need more housing supply”, while News Corp columnist Joe Hildebrand said it was a “chicken and egg problem” because “one the shortages we have is enough people to build houses”.

Mr Cox was seen shaking his head in exasperation as the panel spoke.

Around 70 per cent of Australia’s permanent intake is skilled migration, but only a small fraction are in construction jobs.

Panellists were accused of ‘gaslighting’ on immigration. Picture: ABC

The Grattan Institute’s Brendan Coates and Trent Wiltshire noted in a report last year that migrants were “less likely to work in construction than in most other industries”.

“About 32 per cent of Australian workers were foreign born, but only about 24 per cent of workers in building and construction were born overseas,” they wrote.

“And very few recent migrants work in construction. Migrants who arrived in Australia less than five years ago account for just 2.8 per cent of the construction workforce, but account for 4.4 per cent of all workers in Australia.”

Wow, the gaslighting when it comes to immigration and housing is off the charts.

Check out this excellent question and the shocking responses from tonights Q&A program: pic.twitter.com/5rEik8gFND

— Biko Konstantinos (@BikoKonstantin1) March 10, 2025

Asked by QandA host Patricia Karvelas whether there “other things you’re looking for” beyond lowering immigration, Mr Cox said “that’s really the main one”.

“And as I understand it the government makes the laws and decides who comes in, so if you’ve got 2.5 million people coming in in a few years, surely you can say to them, ‘No, we don’t have enough houses for you,’” he said, drawing more applause from the audience.

A clip of the exchange, shared on X by Biko Konstantinos, has been viewed 1.2 million times, drawing thousands of furious responses from users.

Parnell Palme McGuinness. Picture: ABC

“So sad to see how exasperated that poor bloke is,” one said. “They pay lip service but nothing more, then gaslight him that it isn’t an issue. Honestly disgusting.”

Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, McGuinness said when it came to housing and disadvantage, immigration was an issue that may seem “small from further up” but “when you’re at the bottom end of the market … can have a massive impact”.

“Statistics show immigrants increasing our gross domestic product and, at least in the aggregate, making us a more prosperous nation,” she said.

“Due to shortages of workers in construction, among other things, Australia is bringing in workers from overseas. But statistics don’t keep a roof over your family’s head. When you’re not earning much, the migrants who are also struggling to get a toehold in their new country are your direct competition. And limited available housing stock makes the equation literally zero-sum — when one family secures one of the rare places to live in a limited price range, another family does not.”

Earlier this month, a photo was snapped at a Sydney rental inspection showing a massive queue to get inside.

A queue at a rental inspection in Sydney’s Inner West. Picture: Reddit

The real estate agent revealed the interest was so high because the owner was happy to accept less than other landlords. The landlord was advised the average rent going to the market was $580 to $610 but he only wanted $500, the agency claimed.

“The owner has chosen to keep the rent below market rate as a personal preference,” property manager Elliott Kazzi told news.com.au.

A report from REA Group this month found rental affordability in Australia has plunged to its lowest level on record, with households earning a median income of roughly $116,000 able to afford just 36 per cent of rentals advertised from July to December.

Median advertised rents surged 11.5 per cent in the 2023 calendar year. Since the start of the Covid pandemic in March 2020, rents nationally are up 48 per cent, far outstripping income growth of 19 per cent.

NSW renters face the worst affordability of any state — median advertised rents in Sydney have surged by $230 since Covid to $730 per week, or nearly $12,000 extra a year.

McGuinness said migrants “aren’t Morgan’s only competition, but they stand out to him because it is a policy choice to allow them to settle in Australia”.

She said a better answer from the panel “would have been to differentiate between the executives and international students who come and go, and the longer-term visa program that claims to be skills-based but which Morgan can see lets in lots of unskilled labour”.

“Morgan, working two jobs, is probably in competition with the unskilled for work as well as housing,” she said. “Of course, it is inexplicable to Morgan that our society should extend compassion to people from other countries while shrugging off his plight.”

McGuinness said poor management of social housing by state governments was also a factor.

“Until the losers of these political calculations on immigration and social housing find a way to be heard beyond a few minutes on a talk show, this injustice will continue,” she said.

— with Chantelle Francis

Originally published as ‘Unsayable’: QandA panellist reveals what she would have said to Aussie dad’s immigration plea