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Coalition argue migration rates are behind housing crisis

The Coalition have pursued Labor over those figures, despite the numbers being lower than what was forecast when the Coalition was in power, and due to the re-opening of the borders after the pandemic closures.

I’m very supportive of migration to Australia which helped build this country, but the pace and the rate of that migration is absolutely a legitimate issue for public debate and the impact that has on services into our community is also very legitimate, particularly housing. Frankly, I thought this was a particularly tone deaf contribution from the business community today, suggesting that the only numbers that matter were the permanent migration program and not the temporary workers, students who are coming here right now.

Because we know they are coming in extraordinary numbers and by the end of this year, I’ve been told by people in the industry it’s going to be eye wateringly high numbers, perhaps the largest ever on record.

If we want to continue to be competitive in attracting global talent, our migration system needs to be reformed.

Australia is competing against other countries for the best and brightest; and slow or complex migration systems, which do not provide appropriate levels of certainty for someone looking to uproot their lives to move internationally, puts us at a serious disadvantage.

There is a current misconception that our migration figures are higher than normal.

It is important to recognise migration numbers currently recorded simply reflect a rebalancing after the pandemic border closures in 2020 and 2021.