A housing expert has revealed the true flaw in Australia’s housing problem, saying that if the government were to cut migration to solve the crisis, the economy would suffer $200 billion over three decades.
Gratton Institute CEO Dr Aruna Sathanapally was a panellist at a Q&A session on Monday evening, where she discussed the housing crisis with Housing and Homelessness Minister Clare O’Neil, shadow minister Michael Sukkar and financial journalist Alan Kohler.
Responding to a question about whether migrants were to blame for the housing crisis, Dor Sathanapally said the source of the problem was homelessness.
“We can do it and reduce migration, but we should not pretend that it is not an expensive way to solve a housing problem when the source of “The problem is that we have not managed to build enough houses for the population that we always knew we would have at this time,” he said.
Dr Sathanapally said businesses would say reducing migration would be costly because they would not be able to get the workers they needed and universities would suffer because of one of the country’s most successful export industries.
“The care sector will tell you it’s expensive because it affects our elder care workforce and our child care workforce,” she said.
‘If we don’t get housing right and we can’t accommodate the workforce that we need, the working-age population that we need, that creates all kinds of problems elsewhere.
‘So even a reduction like the one the Coalition has proposed of 25,000 in terms of our skilled migration, we have calculated that it would cost us more than 200 billion dollars over 30 years and that is because migrants pay more in taxes than they receive in services.’
A housing expert has revealed the true failure of Australia’s housing problem, saying that if the government were to reduce migration to solve the crisis, the economy would suffer $200 billion over three decades (file image)
Gratton Institute CEO Dr Aruna Sathanapally (pictured) was a panellist at Monday night’s Q&A session, where she discussed the housing crisis.
In June it was revealed that Australia is accepting more than 10,000 migrants a week despite Anthony Albanese promising to halve the number of new arrivals by next year.
According to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 1,500 people are arriving every day, or 60 migrants every hour.
By 2024 alone, Australia will welcome more than 500,000 migrants as the population faces a growing housing and cost-of-living crisis.
An additional 4,200 homes are needed each week to maintain the current level of growth, although fewer than 1,000 are currently being built.
The alarming immigration figures come just weeks after the Prime Minister promised his government would halve immigration levels within a year.
Peter Strachan, president of Sustainable Population Australia, called for immigration to be curbed immediately.
“We understand calls to end immigration in light of the terrible effect that the addition of one million immigrants in two years had on the housing market, as well as on infrastructure and services,” he said.
‘Over the past 20 years, immigration has been too high, based on the false claim that we lack enough skilled workers. The resulting population growth has created more skilled labour shortages than it has filled.
“The real reasons for mass immigration are to keep wages down and house prices up. This is not in the interests of Australians or immigrants, who are among the disadvantaged in both employment and housing.”
An additional 4,200 homes are needed each week to maintain the current level of growth, yet fewer than 1,000 are currently being built.
Mr Strachan urged that net outward migration be limited to just 70,000 people a year.
Australia is expected to be home to 45 million people by 2070 following an effort to increase the population by 75 per cent in just a few generations.
“We can keep refugee intake at 20,000 and still have room for the skilled migrants that employers want to sponsor, along with their families,” Strachan said.
‘However, Australia should stop importing people on points-based visas, who tend not to get skilled jobs.
“The only reason the government does this is to push immigration above the levels employers want. This causes consumption and GDP to rise, but productivity and GDP per capita to fall.”
