PETER VAN ONSELEN: Not in our lovely leafy backyards, thank you! Record immigration finally hits the hypocritical teals

Victorian Teal MPs Monique Ryan and Zoe Daniel soon discover how difficult it is to speak with both sides of the mouth at the same time.

On the one hand, they support mass migration and condemn people like Peter Dutton as ‘racist’ when he called for less immigration. It doesn’t matter that current interest rates are at record highs.

Ryan suggested Dutton was “dog whistling” when he used his Budget Response speech to explore how to reduce migration as part of the solution to Australia’s housing crisis.

Ryan said the good people in her electorate are well aware of how “the migrant experience and immigration to this country has been incredibly important.”

But when a Labor state premier announces the plan to develop 20-storey apartment complexes near public transport areas in Melbourne to provide (slightly more) affordable inner-city housing for new migrants (and young Australians struggling to find a house) becomes the advocacy for The mass migration is starting to decline.

Why? Because the intention is that these developments will reach the beautiful, green-blue voters. The horror, the horror!

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has decided to widen the network in which high-rise projects can be built, reaching into green-blue areas. The apartment complexes are planned for areas including affluent suburbs including Brighton and Hampton in Daniel’s electorate, and affluent Toorak, Armadale and Malvern in Ryan’s seat of Kooyong.

“Nine of the 25 new activity zones will fall under my electorate… many people in my community are very concerned about the housing crisis, but also about the impact these proposals could have on them, which I fully understand,” Ryan lamented.

Zoe Daniel’s electorate includes the affluent suburbs of Brighton and Hampton

Daniel went further, stating that her community was “living in fear” of proposed developments, adding that the proposal “didn’t measure up.”

Historically, the wealthy have enjoyed the economic benefits of mass migration without the impact that rising numbers in capital cities can often cause in the suburbs where they live.

That’s because major Australian cities have been growing instead of growing for a long time. Except around major transport hubs in and around the CBD.

Allan’s plan for these developments in the backyards of Ryan and Daniel’s voters has made it much more difficult for the Teals to continue to support high levels of immigration, as the consequences of this now directly impact their neighborhoods.

Hence the rhetorical gymnastics.

Previously, it was only the low-ranking MPs in the outer urban marginal seats who had to worry about such things. And when they did, it gave the teals the perfect opportunity to scold them and wonder what really motivated their concerns. Like Ryan did with Dutton not too long ago.

Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) politics neatly sums up the hypocrisy of the way people like Ryan and Daniel think about such issues.

They love immigration and hate anyone who questions it, until its consequences hit closer to home in their own electorate.

A multi-million dollar property in Toorak

It can be difficult to host political stalls on the street and have to tell two participants opposite things when they ask about these developments.

If you are young or a migrant, they are an important option to take pressure off the inner city housing stock, as long as an independent process is followed.

If, on the other hand, you’re a longtime local voter who doesn’t want the existing “vibrancy” of their community to be threatened, fear not: your local teal shares your concerns… until they’re here. earshot of the other voter walking down the street.

Immigration and housing are perfect issues for the self-righteous youth, dividing them between younger voters who like their progressive anti-major party credentials, and moderate establishment voters who like their leafy suburbs the way they are, thank you very much.

Nevertheless, I’m sure many will find an excuse to give the teals a leave pass for their hypocrisy.