Immigration explodes in Australia - despite Anthony Albanese promising that it would drop before the election
Immigration levels are continuing to soar despite Anthony Albanese promising before the last election that population growth levels would moderate.
In the year to April, 440,330 migrants moved to Australia on a permanent and long-term basis, new data released on Friday showed.
This net figure, covering skilled migrants and international students, is almost a third higher than the 335,000 level forecast for the 2024-25 financial year in Treasury's pre-election March Budget.
Senator Andrew Bragg, the Opposition's housing and homelessness spokesman, said high immigration levels were worsening Australia's housing crisis.
'The government has done no modelling on the impact and the nexus between bringing in hundreds of thousands of people a year and building virtually no houses, relative to the overall requirement,' he told ABC Radio in Brisbane.
'Whilst we are nowhere near Labor's housing target, I think it makes a lot of sense to look at the nexus between migration and housing completions.'
The 77,720 arrival figure for April alone was the highest monthly intake ever for that time of year, following the start of the new university year.
Morgan Begg, the director of research at the Institute of Public Affairs think tank, said the government could no longer be trusted to accurately predict immigration levels.
'After a succession of failed migration estimates, the federal government no longer has any credibility in projecting future migration levels,' he said.
'The forecasts used in federal budgets are continuously undermined by the government's weakness in controlling excessive migration intakes.'
The Albanese Government and the states are vowing to build 1.2million homes over the five years to June 2029.
That would mean 240,000 homes a year but in 2024, just 177,313 new residential properties were built, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed.
The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council is also concerned, last month predicting just 938,000 new dwellings would be built in the five years to June 2029.
That's 21.8 per cent below Labor's 1.2million target.
Seek senior economist Blair Chapman said high immigration was keeping a cap on wages growth, with pay levels growing by just 3.4 per cent in the year to March.
'In some sectors, it's going to help alleviate some of that labour market tightness we're seeing with skilled workers coming in,' he told Daily Mail Australia.
'Often, those occupations most in demand are able to get workers from overseas on approved visas so that does keep a cap on some of the biggest salary increases.'
Wages growth has moderated despite unemployment remaining low at 4.1 per cent.
But Mr Chapmann said high immigration would do little to address labour shortages in construction, because of strict trade licensing rules.
'There are licensing requirements that prevent people coming straight into those roles,' he said.
High population growth has stopped Australia sinking into a recession but even so, the economy grew by just 1.3 per cent in the year to March - a level well below the long-term average of 3 per cent.
Gross domestic product per capita shrunk by 0.2 per cent in the March quarter.
Australia is in danger of sinking into a per capita recession again, that had persisted from the March quarter of 2023 to the September quarter of 2024.
Average output for every Australian went backwards when GDP was adjusted for population growth.
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