One of Australia’s most successful businessmen blames immigration policies for the country’s economic woes.
Matt Barrie, founder and CEO of Freelancer.com, told the Daily Mail Australia that the “uncontrolled and unhinged mass immigration program” is causing a domino effect on the rest of the country that will only end in “economic disaster.”
An average of 2,000 people were welcomed into Australia each day in September, adding to the more than 500,000 who arrived last year.
Although the Albanese Government announced a decline in immigration levels in June, Mr Barrie said it had still not addressed the housing supply problem.
Rising demand without supply has forced rental, housing and commercial property markets to soar to record levels.
“It’s completely and utterly out of control, the cost of housing drives up the cost of rent, which drives up the cost of rent for businesses,” he said.
‘That adds significant input costs to everything and takes money away from Australians and their businesses.
“This is no longer a functional society.”
Freelancer.com chief executive Matt Barrie (above) has warned that Australia is heading for financial ruin after more than a year of skyrocketing immigration.
The businessman said prices would be affordable if the Albanian government closed the borders instead of continuing to boost demand.
“It is mathematically impossible for current wages to afford housing in many places, particularly in Sydney, parts of Melbourne and even in regional areas,” he said.
‘In Sydney it takes 46 years to save up a deposit on a house, probably closer to 50.
‘A house in Woollahra (east of Sydney) has just sold for $18 million – for that amount you could buy a 2024 model yacht.’
Rising rental costs have also forced essential workers such as paramedics, police officers and teachers to leave their workplaces, Barrie said.
He believes the Reserve Bank of Australia is “obligated” to keep interest rates lower than those of other countries and to maintain the strength of the housing market.
“The RBA should have raised rates significantly more than it has,” Barrie said.
“But they know that if they continue to raise rates, that’s potentially going to cause a correlation of defaults in the housing market.”
Mr Barrie has called mass immigration the “source” of Australia’s financial problems as a lack of housing drives up demand and locks Australians out of the rental and housing market (file image)
While preventing the market from crashing, not pressing the interest rate issue also means inflation could continue to rise and affect all Australians, Barrie said.
He dubbed the government’s bold move against inflationary fever as “project Zimbabwe,” where hyperinflation halved the value of the African country’s currency every day at its peak in 2008.
While Australians may be feeling the impact now, Barrie believes the economy is on a path to collapse without diversified industries.
“We used to produce cars, we had a manufacturing industry in the 1980s,” he said.
“All we do now is trade nice houses like they’re paintings.”
The CEO added that without keeping inflation and the housing market in check, the economy could collapse under the weight of unpaid debts in a similar way to the global financial crisis (file image)
He said big banks “do nothing but lend mortgages” and would buckle under the weight if the market faltered.
“If you look at all the markets in the world where there has been a housing bubble, what ultimately happens is that people become unable to pay their mortgages,” Barrie said.
‘During the global financial crisis, US interest rates suddenly adjusted from 3% to 8%. We are now almost at that point.
‘There are about $350 billion in mortgages issued during the Covid pandemic at an interest rate of about two percent.
‘People have gone crazy, gorging themselves on big houses that they can’t afford in a normal interest rate environment.
“Now banks want to offer 50-year mortgages and delay the process even further.”
Mr Barrie added that it was ridiculous that Australia was struggling economically given its natural resources, relatively small population and density.
“We have the same amount of coal and twice as much uranium as Saudi Arabia, and yet the price of our energy is out of control,” he said.
‘We cannot talk about nuclear plants because they would affect renewable energy projects.
‘We are much better off focusing on nuclear power and more conventional forms of power generation, but we have driven up energy prices.
“We should be the richest country in the world per capita, but we’ve completely screwed up.”