What do Steven Miles, the Labor Premier of Queensland, and Peter Dutton, the Liberal federal Opposition Leader, have in common?

They both very much want to slow down migration to make housing more affordable.

Steven Miles argued that migrants are “a big part of why [house] prices and rents haven risen so rapidly”. He was backed by his Treasurer, Cameron Dick, who wants migration to Queensland to be halved.

In his Budget reply speech, Peter Dutton promised to slash the permanent migration program by 25 per cent (from 185,000 to 140,000 for the next two years before lifting it up to first 150,000 then 160,000).

These comments come after Australia had record high migration intakes last year. The narrative is simple. How foolish were we to take in record numbers of migrants during a nationwide housing shortage?

No context is provided regarding last year’s record intake. The growth was exclusively driven by international students. All other visa categories were below pre-pandemic averages.

We let in so many international students in a single year because they weren’t able to come in the years prior due to our national lockdowns and the prolonged Chinese lockdowns.

This was pent-up demand and won’t be repeated. The spots for international students are now filled and we will bit by bit, and automatically, reach pre-pandemic levels.

Any suggestion that we will see these type of migrant numbers again is pure fear-mongering.

In their critiques our politicians were all very careful to emphasise that they appreciate the importance of migrants but only wish to cut migration to drive down house prices. It’s all about making housing more affordable for Australians. Got it?

There is a certain logic to that, but it’s also an incredibly convenient narrative.

Granted, each new resident must be housed, there is........

© InDaily