Immigration approvals have doubled in some categories as Australia grapples with a rental crisis and a cost-of-living crisis.
The Interior Ministry has released how many applications were approved during the first nine months of fiscal year 2022-23, compared to the same period up to the end of March in 2021-22.
The skilled migration category saw an increase of 111.7 percent, with the permanent influx rising from 68,055 to 144,040.
Student visa approvals, classified as temporary but long-term arrivals, rose 154.4 percent to 511,149, compared to 200,941.
Tasmanian Labor Senator Helen Polley, a member of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government, was so concerned that she asked a question beforehand as a member of the Senate Judicial and Constitutional Affairs Committee.
Immigration approvals have doubled in some categories as Australia grapples with a rental and cost-of-living crisis (pictured is a rental row at Bondi in eastern Sydney)
“Has there been more visa applications this year?” she asked.
“I assume after the Covid rebuild we see more applications and therefore more applications are processed in a timely manner?”
The Department of Finance expects a record 400,000 migrants to arrive in Australia by 2022-2023, when departures are subtracted from arrivals.
Australia is expected to host an additional 1.5 million migrants in the five years to June 2027, the May Budget Papers show.
Despite this, the Business Council of Australia has released a new report describing the idea of a ‘great Australia’ as a myth and saying that high immigration is not linked to unaffordable housing.
In Sydney, Australia’s most migrant-dependent city, rents rose 25.1 percent in the year to July to $660.45 a week, data from SQM Research showed.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers admitted on Sunday that rents were a major driver of inflation.
“Rent is one of the inflationary pressures that is most acute right now,” he told Sky News business editor Ross Greenwood.
But when asked about immigration, Dr Chalmers emphasized that international students are the largest source of permanent and long-term student arrivals.
“The two biggest drivers of migration recovery are actually the students, number one,” he said.
However, the treasurer suggested that immigration increased on a net basis as fewer people left to live and work abroad.
“Fewer Australians are leaving to work abroad and so that’s what’s driving the numbers temporarily and it’s largely a recovery from what we saw during Covid,” he said.
The Home Office has increased student visa approvals classified as long-term arrivals by 154.4 per cent to 511,149, compared to 200,941 (pictured are students outside the University of New South Wales in Sydney)
Australia reopened the border to migrant visa holders in December 2021, after the national population shrank on a quarterly basis in 2020, for the first time since 1916.
Shadow Immigration Minister Dan Tehan said: “Labour claims they don’t want a great Australia, but judge them by their actions, not their words.”
The total number of completed visas increased by 290.5 percent to 6.1 million, an increase of 1.57 million.
Of that influx, 5,744,507 were temporary, including students and tourists, while 404,022 were permanent, for skilled migrants and family reunification.
Despite the numbers already being high, the Business Council of Australia, which represents millionaire CEOs, has argued that a wave of immigration ‘should not be the scapegoat for poor planning and a lack of housing stock’.
Jennifer Westacott, CEO of the Business Council of Australia (second from left to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese) denounced the use of the term ‘big Australia’, although the Liberal Party, traditionally the party that is pro-business, has used the term to to criticize Work
BCA CEO Jennifer Westacott denounced the use of the term ‘great Australia’, although the Liberal Party, traditionally the party that is pro-business, has used the term to criticize Labour.
“Current migration numbers are a post-pandemic adjustment, not a ‘great Australia’ policy,” she said.
“It’s unfair to call current migration rates part of a ‘great Australia’ policy.”
“The story that a ‘big Australia’ policy is currently in play is a myth.”
Sydney’s median house price of $1,333,985 in July was 11.3 times Australia’s median full-time salary of $94,000, even with a 20 percent mortgage.
The BMA described housing affordability as “factors outside the migration system.”