James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to make some comments this evening about some challenges and opportunities that I believe we have in this nation in the months and years ahead, on two similar, linked themes: the first is the opportunities of migration, and the other is the challenges of housing affordability. I think they are linked. In the comments I'm about to make you'll see that I'm very supportive of seizing the opportunity of a new era of migration into this country but equally I believe that we need to have a plan to address sustainable population growth in the right way and in the right parts of this country, and at the same time take an opportunity to address the challenges of housing affordability.

At the moment I'm lucky enough to be serving on the Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue, and we're in the middle of a housing affordability inquiry. I in no way intend to comment on an inquiry that is underway and predetermine what that inquiry might find, but it's an undisputed fact that housing affordability is an enormous challenge in this nation right now. It's an odd predicament for a nation like Australia. Not many people in other parts of the world would think that we had housing affordability challenges. When they were giving out continents, not many countries got one to themselves. We are an island continent nation like nowhere else on the planet. We have a comparatively small population for the size of our land mass. Obviously, I accept that continental Australia isn't ubiquitously inhabitable like some other continents but, nonetheless, it would surprise most people—and I think it surprises people in this country–that, given the abundance of land that we have as a nation, we have these challenges of housing affordability. That is regrettable because I am a firm believer that one of the most important things for someone's future security, their economic security and that of their family is for them to be able to own their own home and have that economic and social stability that you get from having no stress or concern whatsoever about having shelter for yourself and your family. Hopefully, it's not just anything but something you're proud of and something that allows you to genuinely enjoy the time that you have when you're in that home.

It is surprising that it's not just the major cities that have acute housing affordability at the moment. I'm obviously talking about Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and perhaps the entire south-east corner of Queensland could be put into this category where we've had, particularly in pre-COVID times, very significant rapid population growth in those areas which has put pressure on housing prices. It's also put pressure on infrastructure and other services, and that has created some tensions in debates about managing with some arguing to limit population growth in some of those areas.

I come from Adelaide of course, being the member for Sturt, and the state of South Australia, which has had much lower population growth, both in Adelaide and more broadly in South Australia. Yet we too are struggling with very significant housing price increases and challenges for younger people to be able to get into the housing market. I want to link this to immigration because one of the great strengths of South Australia in decades gone by, particularly in the post Second World War era, was that we had two very substantial advantages, economically: one was low-cost housing; and the other was relatively cheap electricity. That provided an opportunity for the establishment of substantial manufacturing. Obviously, one of the more iconic industries in South Australia was the car industry but there were many others—white goods et cetera. And of course South Australia and Adelaide were an enormous attraction for post Second World War migration, commencing with European migration, particularly those of Greek and Italian descent.

I note, having the member for Adelaide here, we're very proud of those who are from the generations that came in that period and the contribution they make to our country and of course the other waves of migration that we've had in more recent times. I think no-one would disagree in 2021, despite some of the disappointing elements of migration debate in this country in decades gone by, that we would be a shadow of the nation that we currently are, were it not for the immigration that we've had into this nation over a very long period of time and of course the multicultural society that we now have.

I think we are in another post Second World War era for this nation where, again, given our relative impressive and exceptional response to the challenges that we faced as a nation—I don't mean to be political and talk about the government here; I genuinely mean as the people of Australia—and the way in which we have responded to the coronavirus challenges that we have demonstrated to the world once again that Australia is a very appealing place to make your future and to come for opportunity and security. It would be a great thing for this country if we embraced another wave of migration into Australia in this post-COVID period, like we did in the post Second World War period.

I think it's equally important that we think very carefully about the places and geographical parts of this nation where there are better opportunities for more substantial population growth than there are in others. It's not for me, being from Adelaide, to make comments on the size of cities like Sydney and Melbourne, but I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that they are very substantial large cities with challenges that befall them through very high rates of population growth. I'm not suggesting they shouldn't be growing like they have been over the last few decades, but it might be that there are pressures in those big cities in bearing the brunt of a significant new wave of migration.

There are certainly enormous opportunities in a city like Adelaide and a state like South Australia. We are a city state. Mr Deputy Speaker, if you drew a 100-kilometre radius from the GPO of Adelaide, it would pick up all of the Adelaide Hills, the Fleurieu Peninsula down to Victor Harbor and right up through the Barossa Valley et cetera. Really, 90 per cent of the population of South Australia is within 100 kilometres of the Adelaide GPO, even though you could fit France and Germany in the geographical boundaries of the state of South Australia. Of course, there are a lot of regional centres, not just in South Australia but around our country, that could quite easily accommodate large numbers of new migrants if that were adequately coupled with the appropriate housing opportunities for those people.

Of course, the economic opportunities need to be there so that the jobs are there. One thing that we are hearing about more and more consistently, particularly in regional areas, is the challenge of workforce. We hear businesses saying, 'We don't have trouble getting the capital, and we don't have a lack of confidence in our ideas, but we cannot commit to major economic opportunities in regional parts of Australia because we don't have confidence in being able to get and retain the workforce.' We've had these problems before in Australia, when opportunities were there but we lacked the adequate, reliable workforce supply, and we met those challenges through migration—the waves of migration that came into this country, particularly in the post Second World War era. I think that opportunity is upon us again now in the post-COVID period, in the 2020s and beyond. We need to have some political unity around that, which I hope there is some appetite for, and we need to think very sensibly and carefully about how that can be strategically undertaken and exploited.

In the final moments that I've got, I'll note that I'm a particular advocate for differentiated migration on a regional basis. There are parts of this country that are desperate for migration, and the problem is that in the past we've had people who have migrated to Australia but, largely, have been attracted to the major cities, particularly Sydney and Melbourne. I would like to see us be a lot more strategic and targeted in providing pathways for people to come into this country in circumstances where they're going to the regions that really need them, providing the workforce and the economic stability and, in return, having great opportunities for a fantastic life and future here in Australia.

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