In a generation, we went from begging for immigrants to begging our leaders to keep them out. Here’s the TRUTH about why the Left and Right are finally saying enough is enough – and it has nothing to do with race: PVO

There was a time, not all that long ago, when Australia couldn’t open the gates wide enough to let more migrants in.

Skilled migrants were needed and international students were welcomed with open arms. Why? Birth rates were down, economic growth was flat, and politicians of all stripes embraced immigration as an economic necessity.

Starting with the ‘Ten Pound Poms’ assisted migration scheme for Britons introduced in 1945, a growing migrant population was regarded as a desirable goal by everyone except the far-right fringe.

In the decades that followed, few dared to challenge the consensus, lest they be labelled racist.

But something has changed, and not just at the margins.

Today, concern about high immigration has well and truly gone mainstream, and here’s the inconvenient truth for those unhappy about the shift: it isn’t driven by racism or fear of difference.

It’s about pressure on housing, on infrastructure and on services. The national capacity to absorb rapid population growth has been exceeded, yet the growth in migration has never been higher.

Nowhere is the problem clearer than when it comes to housing. Rents are still climbing fast, up around 7–8 per cent nationally over the past year alone. They are rising much faster than inflation. In some areas, rent increases have been even steeper, with year-on-year spikes of up to 18 per cent.

People don’t want more demand for housing when supply can’t keep up.

Vacancy rates are stuck at less than one per cent, well below the three per cent threshold for a balanced market. Even regional towns are starting to feel the pressure.

Home ownership for the next generation is becoming a fantasy, and it has all unfolded as net overseas migration delivered nearly one million new Australians over the last two years alone: 528,000 in 2022–23 and 446,000 in 2023–24.

The Albanese government claims it’s building 1.2 million new homes over five years, but on current trends that target is pure fiction – its own bureaucrats even say so.

Construction is slowing, not accelerating. The building sector is grappling with labour shortages and rising costs. State planning systems remain sluggish at best. Quarterly dwelling completions are closer to 45,000 when they need to exceed 60,000 to meet the goals set.

And it’s not just homes that are the problem. Roads are clogged, schools are full and bulk billing is declining despite political promises to turn that trend around. Commute times are getting longer as infrastructure can’t keep pace with population growth.

Immigration has become a political crutch, which Australians are waking up to. The economic growth it generates is undeniable, but often misleading. GDP headlines tick upward, but per capita incomes are falling. We’re importing people to avoid recession, not to improve living standards enjoyed by individuals.

In Labor’s own heartland – outer suburban seats like Werriwa in Sydney or Holt in Melbourne – voters aren’t objecting to migration because of race or culture. They’re frustrated because their communities are stretched to breaking point, and few in Canberra seem to notice.

These are not Pauline Hanson acolytes – they’re working families watching their quality of life erode. Even the ABC, hardly a bastion of border hawkishness, has acknowledged the political winds have shifted. What was once consensus (high immigration is good) is now up for debate, and for good reason.

The usual reflex of accusing critics of racism is losing its punch. Australians aren’t objecting to who is coming – they are objecting to the size and growth in the numbers.

Take international students, for example. Universities have become financially dependent on them, which is the government’s fault for demanding more from universities without matching funding. University administrators are using migration in their business models to fill the funding gaps, and to chase higher international rankings, which win applause. The large east coast universities are the biggest offenders, but the problem certainly doesn’t end there.

In 2023, more than 650,000 overseas students were in Australia – a record number. That influx might balance university budgets, but it distorts the housing market and adds pressure to urban infrastructure. 

Many of these students aren’t at world-class institutions, by the way. They are in private colleges that exist primarily to offer a pathway to residency. Education is the cover, migration is the purpose, profits for these private institutions are the outcome, alongside more and more demand on housing and other infrastructure the government can’t keep up with.

Temporary migration has also exploded. Temporary visa holders (students, backpackers and short-term workers) now account for nearly 10 per cent of the population. This quiet surge has occurred under both Coalition and Labor governments, with little public scrutiny along the way.

Morrison used it to boost GDP during stagnant years. Albanese accelerated it post-Covid. Both did so without preparing the country for the consequences, which we are now seeing.

Labor’s Housing Minister Clare O’Neil admitted in 2023 that the system was ‘broken’ and promised reform. But since then, the number of arrivals has gone up. International student caps were announced, then quietly avoided.

In truth, this problem has been building for more than a decade. In 2010, Kevin Rudd floated the idea of a ‘Big Australia’, a nation of 36 million people by 2050. The backlash to his rhetoric was swift: Julia Gillard reversed course and promised a ‘sustainable Australia’ without anything changing.

Abbott ran on border security but oversaw rising skilled and student migration at the same time. Turnbull barely touched the issue, Morrison promised ‘congestion-busting’ infrastructure while quietly expanding temporary migration.

Now, Albanese presides over the highest migration levels in the nation’s history, amid a housing and cost-of-living crisis.

Some inside Labor are starting to wake up. Victorian MP Julian Hill has called for tying migration rates to infrastructure and housing outcomes, but he’s an outlier. Most of the Labor Party is stuck, torn between progressive ideals and the reality that their policy settings are making life harder for the very people they claim to represent.

The public knows housing is more expensive and harder to find because demand has surged. They know infrastructure is struggling to keep up with population growth, and they know high migration rates are a big reason why.

This is the end of the unthinking immigration consensus, not a swing towards nationalism. Australians aren’t rejecting migration as a concept and what it has added historically. We are a migrant nation – we are better because of that. Whatever debates in the past have descended into tawdry arguments about race, that’s not what is happening now.

The electorate isn’t anti-migrant, it’s anti-political bulls***. Australians are rejecting the way record arrivals have been used as a substitute for productivity reform, as a cover for economic mismanagement, and a tool used to inflate GDP while living standards decline.

Leaders of both major parties have used immigration as a Band-Aid for deeper problems. A skills shortage? Import the skills without improving training pathways. A sluggish economy? Import consumers rather than reform the system to boost consumption and productivity. Universities are underfunded? Import students rather than find the public funds via reforming the tax system and cutting wasteful spending.

In just one generation, we have gone from begging for more migrants to begging for governments to slow the flow. The backlash isn’t about borders, thankfully. It’s about adequately looking after those already here. Both major parties need to own up to their complicity in creating this mess.

The political class has lost the public’s trust on this issue. They told Australians immigration was good for the country, and it historically has been – when it’s planned, balanced and sustainable.

A million arrivals in just the last two years doesn’t fit that billing.