Immigration

Under a series of treaties signed by the Australian and New Zealand governments, New Zealand citizens have the right to move to Australia and live there indefinitely under the Special Category Visa (SCV).

I reported this week on Jobs & Skills Australia’s (JSA) latest study on the international education sector, which admitted that the primary motivation for international students to choose Australia is to obtain work rights and permanent residency.

In October 2024, then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged to dramatically cut net migration into Canada.

Everything I have written about Australia’s student-migration scam has been confirmed by the latest study on the international education sector by Jobs & Skills Australia (JSA).

Recently, Japan has witnessed a growing backlash against immigration, accompanied by protests and increasing levels of frustration on Japanese social media.

“Stubborn empty nesters” refusing to downsize from their family-friendly homes have become Australia’s latest housing scapegoat.

It is essential to understand Australia’s immigration policy within its historical context. During the first 60 years following World War II, Australia’s net overseas migration (NOM) averaged 90,000 per year, with only two years exceeding 150,000.

Neither politicians nor supporters of a Big Australia immigration policy acknowledge the significance of water.

The AFR’s education editor, Julie Hare, published an alarmist article on the tiny reduction in international student enrolments, which she labelled a “plunge”.

While the focus of Australia’s political policymakers remains on issues largely external to the nation’s rental crisis, more and more data continues to emerge pointing to the impact of the failure of successive governments, which is worsening circumstances by the day.

Australia’s population ballooned by around 8.5 million (45%) over the first 25 years of this century, easily exceeding the population growth experienced by other advanced nations. Between Q1 2021 and Q1 2025, Australia’s population grew by an astonishing 1.88 million (7.9%)—equivalent to adding an Adelaide and Hobart to the nation’s population.

Over the past 20 years, Australian universities have evolved into revenue-driven corporations.

Teal independents continue to run interference for Big Australia mass immigration. In 2022, Zali Steggal, a Teal member from Warringah (which includes Sydney’s rich northern beaches), supported a large increase in immigration to combat labour shortages.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the official population and immigration data for the March quarter of 2025.

As the debate over the right level of migration into the nation continues, I thought it would be interesting to look at some assessments of Australia’s migration system.

The Australian’s Judith Sloan last week attacked the “shoddy” economic arguments used by those who favour large immigration numbers and open-border policies. The canards identified by Sloan include the following: Recent high figures of net overseas migration (long-term arrivals minus long-term departures) are merely a catchup from the pause caused by Covid.

It is important to view Australia’s immigration policy in a historical context. In the first 60 years after World War 2, Australia’s net overseas migration (NOM) averaged 90,000 per annum, with only two years over that 60-year period recording a NOM of more than 150,000.

Shortly before Britain went to the polls for the 2010 General Election, then Opposition Leader David Cameron released the Conservative Party’s manifesto, pledging to cut net migration into the U.K.

Australia already had the highest concentration of international students in the world before the pandemic hit.

In February, on ABC’s Q&A, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated that the government was cutting immigration and relieving pressure on the housing market by reducing international student numbers.

Recall that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told ABC’s Q&A in February that Labor would cut immigration and relieve pressure on the rental market by reducing the number of student visas, which he said were being “abused”.