John Macaulay describes immigration as the elephant in the room when the cost of housing is discussed in Australia. Serious political discussion in this country is rarely entertained because of the number of issues now “encased in thick plaques of unreality”. This “shallowness” is particularly true in the case of immigration's impact on house prices. The housing and building hustlers ignore the fact that the more people after housing the higher the prices go. And our political class? Well we all know how slavish to big business they are.

Macaulay says that the housing industry lobbyists are “bought and paid for” by that pampered big business. They are “effectively paid” to keep quiet about our ridiculously high immigration's effect on housing prices. Market economists are reluctant to mention immigration through fear of raising the ire of “the corporate sector and 'progressive’ politicians”. Any independent thinking is mentioned only in passing, and is never examined seriously.

“There is no voice of reason” to examine the case for lowering immigration intake to address the housing affordability crisis. Macaulay thinks that the conservative voice is “orphaned” but it is more likely that what miserable dregs of conservatism is left in Australia is not capable of expressing the values and common sense it is supposed to uphold.

It is estimated that “every one percent increase inpopulation” sees an “eight percent rise in house prices”.

Macaulay stresses that immigration is “one of the key drivers of house prices in Australia”, and that both political parties have “pushed one of the world’s largest immigration programs on the Australian people …. with the effect of pricing many of them out of the housing market”.

A “stale and intolerant political class” has decided that we shouldn't know the truth of high immigration and its deleterious effect on locals. A high immigration policy that, if voters had asked, would have rejected.

So, there we go. An overpopulated country, with a shallow democracy, and less chance than ever of being able to buy a house. That's progressivism. (Spectator 7/2/19)

Hi Ttbn,

Perhaps, as you imply, immigrants should be barred from standard housing and should find their own accommodation in tents and wurlies, that'll serve the bastards right. And they not only take our jobs but also live on welfare too. Send them all back: no more Indian doctors and dentists, no more Filipino nurses. Reclaim the jobs, Australia !!

OR ........ maybe immigrants are as entitled to housing and jobs as the rest of Australians. But it's so satisfying to find some out-group to flog :)

Cheers,

Joe

Good thread ttbn-

An amusing thought is that the politicians that promote immigration should get a first hand experience of their policies and get to live in the "tents and wurlies" in the desert with non-english "speaking and acting" immigrants. Sadly this wouldn't fix the problem as it is driven from other nefarious sources.

Here is the link...but there's a pay (login) wall
http://www.spectator.com.au/2019/02/immigration-the-house-price-elephant-in-the-room/

CM,

The evils of immigration are similar to the evils of unreliable energy and sky-rocketing electricity prices and lower productivity and competitiveness, loss of jobs etc in the name of 'fixing' the climate: the politicians are blind to the effects of both evils.

Thanks for the reference, but that's where I got the info from. I subscribe to The Spectator because it is one of the very few organs dealing in common sense these days

The 'shallowness of Australian democracy' is the key. It is behind not just suicidal immigration, but everything else that has gone wrong in this country. But, only the West commits suicide by immigration and acceptance of faux refugees with their eyes on our welfare and and housing.

China doesn’t take in hordes of refugees who have no cultural or racial connection with it. Nor does India, or Japan, or Indonesia, or Mongolia or Nigeria. Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam, doesn’t take anyone in, Muslim or not, but is simply happy to build mosques in those white Christian countries that do admit its adherents.

Seeing that people like Loudmouth want to twist anything said about immigration, irrespective of context, to 'poor, suffering minorities' and racism, I will use his deviation from the topic to reinforce my main bugbear, immigration per se.

ttbn- I like the spectator too.