this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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34
Australia’s population is almost 27 million – and growing at a 70-year high (www.smh.com.au)
submitted 7 months ago by maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone to c/australia@aussie.zone
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I had no idea we were anywhere near 27 million. Here's an archive.org link.

Guardian's piece | Migration rose by one-third last year to lift Australia’s population by a record 659,000

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[–] Longmactoppedup@aussie.zone 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Perhaps you aren't aware that we have a housing crisis in Australia.

Record low rental vacancies. Housing is too expensive and scarce for people on median incomes.

The people we import typically have enough money to displace those who don't. Those who don't end up homeless. Our politicians don't give a fuck as many own multiple investment properties.

[–] yistdaj@pawb.social 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I don't buy the idea that immigration is the cause of the housing crisis, any more than young Australians buying their first home. I'm not even sure if it's the investors either. They all may be sources of demand pressure, but I think there's a sort of blockage in Australia's housing market, and I would pin the blame of high housing costs on that blockage.

We live in an economy that assumes that the basic ideas of supply and demand lead to capital investment into production, leading to more supply. In housing, the way it's expected to react to increased immigration is as follows:

  1. Increased immigration leads to increased demand for housing.
  2. Demand for housing leads to higher house prices.
  3. Higher house prices lead to higher demand for construction.
  4. Higher demand for construction results in more profits for construction companies selling houses.
  5. Construction companies reinvest more of their profits into making houses, increasing supply of houses.
  6. Increased supply causes housing prices to drop back to where they were before immigration rates increased. I takes a few years, but it's supposed to be "self-adjusting", always restoring prices back to a theoretical "ideal", not counting inflation.

Except as we all know, it doesn't do that, at least with housing. In particular, I think steps 3, 4 and 5 don't follow in the modern Australian market. I think the key to solving the housing crisis, short of the government building it all themselves, is to figure out why 3, 4 and 5 don't follow, and to change things so that they do.

It might look like decreasing immigration would at least alleviate demand pressure, but that's just kicking the can down the road. There isn't enough housing supply for demand caused by our natural birth rate, and so we're accumulating demand pressure anyway. I view it as a distraction from discussing real solutions, that allow housing prices to not just increase more slowly, but fall.

[–] yistdaj@pawb.social 1 points 7 months ago

I also forgot: houses became more expensive during the majority of the pandemic, while borders were closed. There was a short period with a fall, but only because they shot up sharply in the beginning.

[–] notgold@aussie.zone 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Many people that come to Australia have money; Many do not.

Free movement of people and immigration is a pillar of Australian life.

For those who've across the seas We've boundless plains to share

Unless your from a first peoples background, you owe your lifestyle and wealth to immigration. A little hardship for the greater good is something we should all except.

[–] Longmactoppedup@aussie.zone 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure the families living in tents and cars will agree with you.

[–] notgold@aussie.zone 1 points 7 months ago

You mean the Syrian families living in tents in 50 degree weather? Or the starving Palestinian families with children in tents? Or the latino families whose tents don't protect them from drug war gunfire? Or the Rohingya families in tents without medicine? Or the Sudanese families escaping ethnic cleansing?

Living in a tent isn't really good for anyone but there is a vast difference between living in a tent but still getting healthcare and education versus living in a tent fearful of death. Families living in a tent in Australia is sad but it it's normally a temporary situation measured in months. For some of these refugees, living in a tent will be many years. Many years for children without the chance to go to school, get proper nourishment or just be a child.