Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Many people in this place have spoken about the housing crisis that's affecting our nation. Compounding this issue—which we need to have a very sober conversation about—is the net record migration we have. We have record highs. In the first seven months of this year, 320,000 new permanent long-term arrivals have entered this country. That will be 400,000 people by the end of the year. This is 70 per cent above the long-term average, which equates to approximately one-third of greater metropolitan Adelaide.

Westpac reported that the monthly gain is just a smidge under 40,000 per month, up from 23,000 new permanent migrants per month in the decade before the pandemic. Between 2007 and 2020, the average net gain was 226,000 people per year. This year, we've blitzed that number already—and we're not yet at the end of this year. I raise this not because I'm opposed to migration. I support a migration strategy, but it needs to be thoughtful. I also support an increase in our refugee intake. Our housing shortage unequivocally demonstrates that we do not have sufficient capacity in our current population, let alone what could only be called migration on steroids. This isn't just a problem in the cities; it's a problem in our regions.

We know that many people living in the inner cities really struggled during COVID and wanted to move out to the regions. So there's that added pressure there. In some sense, it's a welcome thing. But we need to recognise whether, with a vacancy rate of less than one per cent, we're being responsible when we say we're going to have net migration—record migration—of around 400,000 in one year alone. Our entire economic system is based on a positive GDP through migration. I think that's lazy. It lacks vision and places increasing stress on our resources. I actually think it's like a Ponzi scheme. We keep bringing more and more people in to say, 'We've got growth; we've got growth; we've got growth.' All it does is put more and more pressure on the finite resources we have. We have nowhere to house people now. I had never seen people living in tents in my electorate, and there are people permanently living in tents at the moment. Then we're going to add fuel to that fire by bringing in another 400,000 people in one year. As I said, we have record highs.

The critical issues facing our country are not being addressed. We have a housing shortage, an energy cost shortage, a looming energy supply crisis and a cost-of-living crisis. This constant push for a big Australia is exacerbating each one of those crises. Again, I'm not saying that we shouldn't have migration. I'm a migrant. I'm very fortunate to have come to Australia as a little baby. But we need to make sure that we do this carefully. This wholesale opening of the floodgates and bringing in 400,000 permanent migrants, I think, is a very dangerous thing to do, particularly when we don't have anywhere to house them. That is a great concern. No-one has been able to tell how they're going to fix that. No-one I've spoken to has said, 'We're talking about building 30,000 homes, and we're all going ra-ra-ra.' Where are we going to put these people?

We need to be very careful. We need to have a very sober conversation about this, as a nation. This has been raised with me by so many constituents. They are deeply concerned about this. They look at the simple maths of this and say, 'How do we do this?' As I said, I do support migration. I particularly support having an open and welcoming country for people fleeing war-torn countries and seeking asylum, but we need to be very, very careful. We are in an unprecedented housing crisis, infrastructure is falling short everywhere, and there's huge pressure on resources such as energy supply and access to water. There is much that we need to do. I urge the government to be honest with the Australian people about why you are doing this because I have yet to hear any answers.