Record migrant arrivals prompt ‘Big Australia’ stoush

Around five full 747-loads of new arrivals are landing here each day, leading to a fresh political stoush about a ‘Big Australia’.

Migrants are driving Australia’s population growth, new ABS data reveals

Australia’s cities and infrastructure are straining under the weight of almost five full Boeing 747s of migrants arriving into the country each day.

A record 765,900 new overseas arrivals landed in the year to September 2023, Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows, 2098 people a day.

Combined with falling departure numbers, net overseas ­migration hit 548,800 in the 12 months to September, 60 per cent higher than the year before.

The September quarter alone saw 206,000 overseas arrivals, the ABS data reveals, leading to a quarterly net overseas migration number of 145,200, the second highest on record.

Annual net overseas migration continues to trend upward from 518,000 in 2022-23, primarily ­driven by 283,000 international students. It accounted for more than 80 per cent of population growth in the year to September, with Australia’s population clock recently ticking past 27 million people.

The new numbers put the Albanese government under pressure on multiple fronts. The numbers are heading the wrong way to meet the net overseas migration declines predicted in Treasury’s December mid-year economic and fiscal outlook – 375,000 for 2023-24 and 250,000 in 2024-25.

The opposition is pinning a “Big Australia” tag on the government as families struggle to access housing and services, saying the immigration numbers are a “catastrophe”.

And the NSW Labor government has used the new numbers to cry foul on its GST reduction, with Treasurer Daniel Mookhey saying it made the case for distribution based on population share.

Anthony Albanese told parliament on Thursday that “migration is lower than it was anticipated to be” and said the problems with housing and rental affordability had been decades in the making, accusing the Coalition of doing nothing to address the issue when in government.

Jim Chalmers said the “relatively high” net overseas ­migration number was due to the arrival of international students, and the latest figures did not account for action taken by the government in the second half of 2023 to reduce overseas student numbers. These include bringing forward the introduction of more stringent English-language tests and a “genuine student” test to this weekend.

The Treasurer acknowledged there was a housing shortage and challenged the Coalition to “help fix it”, saying Labor’s policies to ­address the problem had been ­opposed by the Liberals.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan responded by saying “Labor’s big Australia continues to get bigger”.

“We have never seen this many people arrive in Australia in one year,” Mr Tehan said. “It is a huge number and the reality is it is not getting smaller.”

“Australians will rightly ask, where are all these people going to live. We are in the middle of a housing crisis. We are in the middle of a rental crisis. People can’t see their GP. Yet their big Australia continues to get bigger.”

Mr Tehan called on Labor to “reduce the number of immigrants coming to this country” and ­argued that current volumes were “not sustainable”.

“We’ve got record numbers of people coming into Australia. They are causing the housing crisis. They are causing a rental crisis … Yet businesses can’t get the workers that they want. It’s a ­catastrophe. It’s a mess.”

Mr Mookhey said that with NSW receiving a record 186,433 overseas migrants through the 12 months to September, the GST ­arrangements should be changed.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“We are taking the bulk of the nation’s population growth, which is why it’s so important we divvy up the GST on population share,” he said. “If we’re going to have this level of growth we also need to make sure that NSW is getting the amount of funding we need for schools, hospitals and infrastructure, as well as from the GST.”

Mr Mookhey said NSW was set to receive only 27.5 per cent of all GST revenue, compared with a population share of 31 per cent, which would have “serious implications” for the budget.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“We’re (NSW) getting our lowest share that we’ve ever received,” he said. “As a result, we don’t have the fiscal capacity (to reach agreements with the federal government on infrastructure) … no spare change to help the federal government.”

KPMG head of migration services Mark Wright said it was critical the government wasn’t spooked by the high net migration numbers and stuck to its policies to attract migrants with the skills the nation needs.

“The government’s migration strategy released in December identified a number of critical areas of reform aimed at simplifying the migration program for ­employers to better target, attract and retain skilled talent,” Mr Wright said. “It’s important that the latest migration program statistics do not distract the government from this important priority which will drive improved productivity and growth.

“An informed discussion around Australia’s migration program should centre on the skills Australia requires, rather than simply the numbers.”