Victorian Teal MPs Monique Ryan and Zoe Daniel are quickly discovering how difficult it is to talk out of both sides of your mouth at the same time.
On the one hand, they support mass migration and condemn people like Peter Dutton as “racist” when he called for less immigration. Never mind that current rates are at record levels.
Ryan suggested Dutton was “dog whistling” when he used his budget response speech to sound out how migration could be reduced as part of the solution to Australia’s housing crisis.
Ryan said the good people of his electorate are well aware that “the immigrant experience and immigration to this country has been incredibly important.”
But when a Labor state premier announces the plan to develop 20-storey high apartment blocks near public transport areas across Melbourne to provide (slightly more) affordable inner-city housing for new immigrants ( and to young Australians struggling to afford a house), advocacy for Mass migration is beginning to wane.
Because? Because those developments are slated to enter the lovely, leafy teal electorates. The horror, the horror!
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has decided to expand the network on which high-rise developments can be built, moving towards teal areas. The apartment blocks are planned for areas including affluent suburbs such as Brighton and Hampton in Daniel’s electorate, and affluent Toorak, Armadale and Malvern in Ryan’s seat of Kooyong.
“Nine of the 25 new activity zones will be in my electorate… a lot of people in my community are really concerned about the housing crisis, but also about how these proposals could affect them, which I completely understand,” Ryan lamented.
Teal Victorian MP Monique Ryan
Zoe Daniel’s electorate includes the affluent suburbs of Brighton and Hampton.
Daniel went further and stated that his community was “living in fear” of the proposed developments, adding that the proposal was “not enough”.
Historically, the wealthy have enjoyed the economic benefits of mass migration without the impact that increasing numbers in capital cities can often have on the suburbs in which they live.
This is because big Australian cities have long been growing rather than growing. Apart from key transport hubs in and around the CBD.
Allan’s plan for these developments in the backyards of Ryan and Daniel’s electorates has made it much more difficult for Teal to continue supporting high levels of immigration, given the consequences that are now directly impacting their neighbourhoods.
Hence the rhetorical gymnastics.
Previously, it was only marginal MPs from the low-brow outer metropolitan areas who had to worry about such things. And when they did, it provided the perfect opportunity for the teals to insult them and ask what was really motivating their concerns. Like Ryan did to Dutton not long ago.
Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) Politics neatly sums up the hypocrisy of how people like Ryan and Daniel think about these issues.
They love immigration and hate anyone who questions it, until its effects reach closer to their own constituencies.
A multi-million dollar property in Toorak
It can be awkward hosting political street stalls and having to tell two attendees completely opposite things when they ask about these events.
If you are young or an immigrant, they represent an important option to relieve pressure on inner-city housing stock, as long as an independent process is followed.
If, on the other hand, you are a long-time local constituent and don’t want the existing “vibe” of your community to be threatened, fear not, your local teal shares your concerns…as long as they’re out and about. within earshot of the other voter who is hiding down the street.
Immigration and housing are perfect wedge issues for teal moralists, who skewer them between younger voters who like their progressive credentials against the big parties and moderate establishment voters who like their leafy suburbs just the way they are. .
However, I’m sure many will find an excuse to give the teals a pass for their hypocrisy.