Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has allowed a record 1.15 million migrants into the country since coming to power.
Labour has already exceeded its migration target for the last financial year, according to an analysis of migration patterns by parliamentary term.
The net migration intake between July 2023 and May 2024 was 445,510, a figure that is well above the 395,000 committed by the Labour Party in the budget.
In just 27 months, Albanese has brought in more migrants than during the entire years of the Hawke-Keating program, which lasted five times longer: 156 months.
The data also revealed that almost a third of Australians (31 per cent) were born overseas, an increase of 9 per cent on 1983 figures.
Albanese’s government also recorded a whopping 62 per cent more migrants than the Rudd-Gillard government, which held the previous record at 1.04 million people.
In the previous year (2022 to 2023), the countries that accounted for the largest group of migrants were India with 92,940 (18 percent), China with 64,320 (12 percent) and the Philippines with 40,890 (8 percent).
The top ten countries of migration to Australia were Nepal, Colombia, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Pakistan, New Zealand and Thailand.
The government of Anthony Albanese (pictured) has brought a record 1.15 million migrants to Australia since taking power.
Net migration between July 2023 and May 2024 was 445,510, well ahead of the 395,000 that Labour pledged in last year’s budget.
Dr Kevin You, a senior researcher at the Institute of Public Affairs, accused the Albanian government of adding to the pressure on inflation and Australia’s tense housing crisis.
“The Albanian government has no plan for economic growth, beyond the short-sighted and lazy approach of bringing in record numbers of migrants, rather than doing the hard work of real economic reform,” said Dr You. The Telegraph newspaper.
‘The record surge in migration is occurring at the same time as housing and rental prices are at record levels and housing construction is at 1980s levels.
‘Australians are suffering a cost of living crisis caused by unplanned mass migration.’
Dr You criticised the Prime Minister for promising to halve the annual intake of migrants in the next financial year, saying the promise was “not worth the paper it is written on”.
Four months ago, Mr Albanese promised that Australia’s net overseas migrant intake would fall to just 250,000 by 2024-25.
“It’s another broken promise from a government that’s making it harder for ordinary Australians to get ahead,” Dr You said.
‘The latest data reinforces that Australia’s migration program is being run in the interests of big business and university bureaucracy, not the Australian people.’
Dr You admitted that while migration has and will continue to play a vital role, the current influx of migrants is placing immense pressure on Australians.
“Record immigration is putting immense pressure on housing and infrastructure, and has not solved our labour shortage crisis and is leaving Australians worse off,” he said.
Immigration and Citizenship Minister Dan Tehan said Labor had a covert “Greater Australia” policy but had no plan to deal with its impact.
“Labor says it doesn’t want a great Australia, but it should be judged by its actions, not its words,” he said.
‘There is no plan for where they will live or how to deal with the impact on government services or the environment.
‘This comes at a time when Australians are struggling to find somewhere to live or are being hit by crippling rent increases.’
Institute of Public Affairs senior fellow Dr Kevin You accused Mr Albanese of adding to the pressure on inflation and Australia’s housing crisis by allowing a record influx of migrants.
In April, Albanese told Melbourne’s 3AW radio host Tom 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.
The consumer price index rose to 3.8 percent in June, further above the Reserve Bank’s 2 to 3 percent target.
The latest headline inflation figures, released in July, were worse than the 3.6 percent in the March quarter and marked the first quarterly deterioration since 2022.
