The Australian National University (ANU) is one of the nation’s key purveyors of immigration propaganda.
Propagandists like “Dr Demography” Liz Allen are regular mouthpieces on the pro-Big Australia migration circuit, as are the ANU Migration Hub’s Peter McDonald and Alan Gamlen.
Jill Sheppard, a senior lecturer at the ANU School of Politics and International Relations, let the mask slip on the latest ANU Democracy Sausage Episode when she argued that donations and lobbying from big business on immigration are a “good thing” because they sway politicians to keep immigration high against the wishes of Australian voters, who overwhelmingly want lower immigration:
Seriously, check out the transcript below from Sheppard:
“Money from big business is actually good. It gets us to a healthy equilibrium especially on issues like immigration and can sort of mitigate against these populist tendencies”…
“Particularly on something like migration, the median voter is anti-migration. Maybe not in net terms. Maybe they don’t want to go full One Nation. But if you said to them and like I run surveys. If you say to them in any configuration of immigration questions, ‘Do you want more migration?’ Most of them will say no”.
“Whatever is happening in their brain to get them to that position, I can’t really say. But something is happening”.
“But business wants migration. Business wants free trade. Business wants open borders. Business wants a lot of positions that we, I think around the table, share as basically good socially and economically liberal outcomes”…
“And then I think that if you are a political party and you have to get money, you don’t have to, but you know the option is there to get money from Woollies and Coles and the Hotels Association. Yes, that leads to some pretty perverse outcomes”.
“But if the alternative is just listening to the median voter who on migration is probably far beyond where we are right now”…
Essentially, what Sheppard has said is: “Screw what voters actually want. They don’t matter. Politicians should represent the lobbying interests of Big Business”.
Sheppard has confirmed that the ANU is an open-borders migration cult that will say anything to keep the numbers flowing.
Sheppard also can’t seem to comprehend “whatever is happening” in voters’ brains to make them want lower immigration.
She can’t comprehend that voters dislike seeing their cities grow too quickly, which leads to diminished housing quality and affordability, overburdened infrastructure and services, and a degraded overall quality of life.
Sheppard also cannot seem to comprehend that when you run immigration too high, faster than business, infrastructure, and housing investment, then the nation suffers from capital shallowing and slower productivity growth:
The empirical evidence shows that Australia’s productivity and per capita GDP growth have collapsed alongside the surge in net overseas migration:
Overall, the testimony of Jill Sheppard is a rare glimpse into the mindset of the ivory tower elites who are happy to stomp on ordinary “pleb” Australians.
