Well, the government has come under attack over its immigration policies, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Paul Scarr joins me now. Senator, Good Morning to you. Thanks for your time.
Senator Scarr
Good Morning to you, Graeme and to your listeners. Great to be with you.
Graeme Goodings
I believe you just stepped out of the house, there was a division called?
Senator Scarr
There are about five divisions in a row, Grahame, so thank you for your kindness in terms of giving me a bit of time to get through those divisions. I do appreciate it. So I think we’re in the all clear to have a good discussion.
Graeme Goodings
Oh, that’s excellent. Yeah. Look, Australia’s migration figures have been a point of contention, a bone of contention. We’ve had tens of thousands of people gather in the cities. 95% of them are totally peaceful people, just concerned about what is happening with migration, not migration per say, but mass migration, the amount of migration. Are you also concerned? I mean, Tony Burke has just come out to say that migration figures will remain at 155,000 over the financial year, the coming financial year, but we’ve had a million over the past two years. How do you see the situation?
Senator Scarr
Well, Grahame, I think the government is not managing our migration policy the way it should be managed. And the first point I’d make is when they brought down their first budget. So the first budget after the Albanese Labor Government was elected, they estimated that net overseas migration in 2022-23 would be 235,000. The actual result was 528,000. More than double. In 2023-24 they estimated it would be 235,000, in the same document, the outcome was 446,000. And this is one of the things which is causing, I believe, a lot of people in the community concern. These wildly inaccurate forecasts. The other point I’d make is that they released the permanent migration intake for this financial year more than two months after the beginning of the year. So we’ve actually had to wait until we’ve gotten well into the new year for them to release the permanent migration intake for this year. As you said, the figures are 185,000 for this year. The Coalition took a policy to the last election that the figure for this year and the next year would be 140,000.
Graeme Goodings
There’s no question that the burden that is placed on the community, and no matter what the government says, you allow 1 million extra people into a country like Australia that is already feeling the burden of a housing crisis, it’s only going to get worse unless the government does something drastic.
Senator Scarr
Well, and that’s the real concern, and I’ve got to emphasize Grahame, and I think you and your listeners, you will all understand this. This is an issue of government policy. People who come to this country seeking a better life, it’s not an issue with them. It’s an issue with respect to government policy. And we must always remember that. I just met representatives from one council in regional Australia who were telling me about the cost to construct a house in their area. So they can sell land at $90,000 a lot, which is very cheap, but the cost to construct a house is about $600,000. So, we have all these uneconomic drivers in terms of our housing industry construction costs, which are really a material problem in terms of housing, in terms of infrastructure, in terms of providing a capacity for the country to take a reasonable migration intake. At the same time, we need to balance the fact that we got massive skill shortages in things like carpenters, electricians, the people we need to actually build houses. And so from my perspective, in terms of our permanent migration intake, we’ve really got to focus on those skills which are needed to address things like the housing shortage and fill some of the other skill shortages. But we’ve also got to look at how we can mobilize all the skills amongst the residents that are here now to make sure that we met, we’re utilizing every single person in this country to fill those skill shortages. I think that’s a really important part of the equation.
Graeme Goodings
Can you understand why people have taken to the streets? It concerned me that the government characterized these marches as as racist and divisive, but I’m talking to people on this program, most people said that, all right, there was the Neo Nazi and the fringe elements that try and destroy any sort of gathering, but the bulk of people were just mums and dads, grandparents, young people who just wanted a fair go and be able to have a home of their own.
Senator Scarr
Graeme, I’m on the record of saying that I’ve got no doubt there were people of good will who marched on Sunday. The issue is, when you have issues in relation to immigration and you’re not having the discussion, the information isn’t being provided as it should be provided in a well considered way, then extremists, like the appalling extremists that we saw come out on Sunday, they will seek to fill the vacuum, and that’s what we’ve got to guard against. And that’s why it’s so important that we have a well considered debate, a reasonable debate about migration and the capacity of the country in relation to intake, what that intake should comprise, and how do we come up with a sustainable migration policy in the longer term, which has the support of the broader Australian community. We need to have that discussion. It needs to be considered and needs to be measured. And that’s very, very important, in my view, to make sure that the extremists who are out there looking for opportunities, we don’t give them any opportunity to fill a vacuum in terms of the discussion, it’s really important.
Graeme Goodings
Senator, good to chat.
