Anthony Albanese’s pledge to halve immigration this financial year looks shaky and could lead to Labour being accused of breaking an election promise.
Just three months ago, the Prime Minister promised that Australia’s net overseas income would fall to just 250,000 by 2024-25.
This comes after a record 547,300 foreigners moved to Australia in 2023, the most ever for a calendar year, as 27,000 New Zealanders moved to Australia.
The influx of migrants to Australia is not slowing: analysis shows that each Australian now loses $7,800 a year, largely due to the housing crisis.
In the year to May, 482,450 migrants moved to Australia, putting into doubt the Treasury’s May Budget forecast of 260,000 arrivals during this financial year.
Dr Kevin You, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, said the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics illustrated that Labor was unlikely to deliver on its promise to halve immigration.
“The latest ABS data confirms that the federal government is simply not interested in delivering on its promise to slow Australia’s record surge in migration and will dramatically overshoot its net overseas migration commitment,” he said.
‘The Prime Minister’s commitment to halve annual migrant intake, made just two months ago, is not worth the paper it’s written on, and is yet another broken promise from a government that is making it harder for ordinary Australians to get ahead.’
Anthony Albanese’s promise to halve immigration this fiscal year looks shaky
A spokeswoman for Mr Albanese said the Treasury figures showed immigration was on track to slow, although new official data for July would not be published until September.
Figures for 2024 will not be known until February.
Migration Watch Australia founder Jordan Knight is campaigning for a two-year immigration freeze.
He noted that both major parties had favored high immigration over the past two decades, which had made housing unaffordable for middle- and average-income workers.
“Australia’s political class is misleading young people into believing that the only way out is more government control and more immigrants,” he said.
“It’s not like that. The solution is simple: less immigration and a political class that puts Australians first, not last.”
The number of Kiwis moving to Australia is now at its highest level since 2013, with a net increase of 27,000.
This came as more than 44,500 Kiwis sought to leave New Zealand as the country headed for recession, compared with 17,500 Australians heading in the opposite direction.
Australia has also been in a per capita recession for the past year, where output per Australian has declined.
The IPA calculated that each Australian lost $7,848 a year as a result of immigration hitting record levels after Australia reopened in 2021 following almost two years of Covid border closures.
“GDP per capita has never before declined for more than a year, and it has now gone on for five quarters,” said Dr You.
‘Today, individual Australians are in recession and falling further behind at a time when the country’s cost of living crisis is already acute.’
Just three months ago, the Prime Minister promised that Australia’s net influx of migrants would fall to just 250,000 by 2024-25 (pictured, Sydney train passengers at City Hall).
Dr Kevin You, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, said the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics illustrated that Labor was unlikely to deliver on its promise to halve immigration.
Australia’s headline inflation rate of 4 per cent in May was high by global standards, and demographic pressures led to a 7.4 per cent annual rise in rents.
In April, Albanese told Melbourne’s 3AW radio host Tim Elliott that his government was aiming to halve net overseas migration levels, after being pressed on a figure.
“Well, we are not going to pull a figure out of the sky, but what we are projecting is that the NOM, the net outward migration, is estimated to come down to 250,000 in the next financial year 2024-25,” he said.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, in his budget response speech in May, promised to cut permanent hires to 140,000 from 185,000.
But total net outward migration, which includes skilled migrants and international students, could still exceed 200,000, or double the levels of the late 1990s.