Milk’s up. Eggs? Up. Lights on? Might cost a kidney! Coffee’s $6. A sandwich? $50.
It’s not one big hit — it’s death by a thousand dollars.
Labor’s cost-of-living crisis is eating Aussie life, one small joy at a time.
Transcript
The price of milk is going up, The price of eggs is going up. The cost of freight is going up. Turning the lights on means selling a kidney on the black market. Everything’s expensive.
Want a Uber Eats sandwich these days? Well, there’s 50 bucks. A quick coffee to warm you up from whatever mini Ice Age we’re shivering in right now – there’s 6 bucks. It all adds up.
Now I like coffee, some days 2. $12.00 in coffee to stay alive. That’s $4,368 in coffee in a year.
Little things add up. 10 years ago it cost $1456 a year in coffee, the odd dollar here and there.
That’s what this cost of living crisis is built on. It’s eating away at the things Australians used to enjoy – one by one.
Even heading down to the pub with your mates for a couple of beers is a luxury expense.
I heard tolls were going up across Sydney – again! Drive across the bridge or have an extra cup of coffee? Turn the lights on or skip lunch? Use the air conditioning? Plug in an electric car to charge?
Are you crazy?
Every Labor tax hike, every bit of kindness to fund Treasurer Jim Chalmers latest thought bubble, every cent squeezed out of you adds up to a personal crisis.
So when we buy our eggs, we buy our milk, we take a detour to avoid a toll or walk past that coffee we can’t afford? Remember Labor’s greed added those costs. One man – $1.00 at a time.
The Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, with a little help of course from Chris Brown and his mad, elusive cheap energy.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), a record 201,490 new foreign students arrived in Australia in February alone. This surge raises a pressing question: where are these people going to sleep?
Senator Watt responded by highlighting the government’s efforts to build new housing (and claiming they’ve done more in three years than the coalition did in almost a decade), however he failed to address the core issue: the government’s inability to control immigration numbers.
Despite promises to bring numbers under control, the reality is stark. The latest data shows that housing starts have decreased since the current government took office, exacerbating the housing crisis. The government’s measures to reduce overseas student numbers have also fallen short, with significant increases in arrivals compared to previous years.
We need a government that put Australians first. One Nation is committed to addressing these issues head-on. We will continue to push for policies that prioritise the needs of Australians, hold the government accountable for its failures and make migration net-negative until our housing and infrastructure catches up.
Transcript
Senator ROBERTS: My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Watt. According to ABS data—that’s Australian Bureau of Statistics data—last month 201,490 new foreign students arrived in Australia. This is a new record for the month of February. Where are these people going to sleep?
Senator WATT: Thank you, Senator Roberts. For starters, obviously, this government has done more in three years to build new housing than we saw in almost 10 years under a coalition government. That’s the first thing. Of course, what we know is that every measure this government has introduced to build more housing while the coalition have been in opposition they’ve voted against. So, for almost 10 years in government, they did nothing about housing, didn’t build a single public home and didn’t build a single social home; they get into opposition and they vote against everything we do to build more homes. That’s the first part of the answer.
Senator Roberts, as you’ll recall, not that long ago, this government sought to pass legislation that would reduce overseas student numbers, because we did recognise there had been an increase to that. Who voted against that as well? That was the opposition that voted against that. Who was the shadow education minister who led the charge against that? That was Senator Henderson. She’s got a lot to say now, but she led the charge against our legislation to try to introduce caps on international student numbers. We will continue to act on both of these things. We will continue to deliver the housing that the opposition voted against; we have taken different measures outside of legislation to deal with the number of international students.
I might also make the point that, in the meantime, our government has acted, and migration levels are coming down as a result of the measures that we’ve taken. In fact, there are fewer people arriving into Australia now than when someone else was the home affairs minister. Who would that be? Peter Dutton—Mr Dutton. So, for all of the promises Mr Dutton is making about immigration now, when he was actually the minister in charge of this, there were more people moving to Australia and migrating to Australia than there are now. (Time expired)
The PRESIDENT: Senator Roberts, first supplementary?
Senator ROBERTS: On 11 December 2023, the then home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, issued a press statement, which included the comment, ‘We are going to make sure we bring numbers back under control.’ Minister, clearly you have not succeeded in getting the numbers back under control. Can you please explain the reason why this government has not been able to control how many people arrive in Australia?
Senator WATT: As I said, as a result of the actions this government has taken, we are seeing migration numbers fall in Australia compared to what they were when we came to office, as a result of the policies of the opposition. In fact, to give you a few more statistics on this, Senator Roberts, there were 10,000 more overseas student arrivals in Australia in January 2019, when—guess who—Mr Dutton was in charge of our borders. More importantly, the number of student visa applications in Australia has dropped by 30 per cent compared with this time last year. This is proof that our measures are working, despite the coalition voting to block our plan to cap overseas student numbers. We’ve all seen, over the last couple of years, the results of Mr Dutton leaving us with a broken migration system—the Albanian crime gangs who have been rorting our visa system and more still. We have been dealing with that and cleaning it up, and we’re now seeing the results with migration numbers falling.
The PRESIDENT:Senator Roberts, second supplementary?
Senator ROBERTS: In the June quarter of 2022, just after your election, housing starts were 47,000. The latest ABS data for the September quarter last year shows just 42,000 starts. You are building fewer homes but bringing in more new arrivals and that has caused the housing catastrophe. If this government is not controlling immigration numbers, who is? Is it the bureaucrats? Is it the universities? Is it the Chinese and Indian governments? Who is in control of Australia’s immigration program?
Senator WATT: I can assure you, Senator Roberts, it’s not the one world government in control of our policies. That’s definitely not the case. The Australian government, of course, is in charge of our migration policies, and it’s the Australian government who has reduced migration numbers over the last three years through a variety of measures—
Senator Canavan: *interjecting—*
Senator WATT: including a number of measures that the very vocal Senator Canavan over there voted against. They’ve got a lot of things to say from the cheap seats over there in the opposition, but, whenever they get the chance to vote on something, they vote against it.
Senator Roberts, I don’t know whether the figures you have just quoted about the number housing starts are correct or not; I’d have to check them. But what I do know is that the construction of new housing being funded through our Housing Australia Future Fund was held up for month after month after month by the unholy coalition of the Liberals, the Nationals, One Nation and the Greens. They blocked our legislation and prevented spending on housing that has finally been passed by the Senate, still with the opposition of this lot over there. We’re now getting on with building those homes.
Throughout my entire time in the Senate, I’ve consistently spoken on the need to restore Australia’s productive capacity through the construction of new infrastructure.
It’s a simple metric: the living standard of each Australian is expressed as our gross domestic product divided by the population. With 5 million new Australians in the last 10 years – 2.5 million under this Labor government – our gross domestic product is being split into more slices for the new arrivals faster than it is growing.
As a result, the standard of living for individual Australians is going backwards and has fallen by 8% since Labor took over. Did anyone hear Prime Minister Albanese promise in his 2022 election campaign to reduce the living standards of everyday Australians by 8%? I didn’t.
The answer to falling living standards is to reduce immigration.
The Government must also embrace the other side of the equation, which is building new infrastructure to enhance our productive capacity.
This video explains One Nation’s ‘build baby build’ policy, which we are taking to this election.
Transcript
I thank Senator Rennick for this opportunity to speak about One Nation’s policies and note that, in March, his statements and policies are becoming increasingly loaded with One Nation policies that we released earlier the month before, in February. In that, it’s like Labor and the LNP too, who are copying elements of our policies.
For the entire time I’ve been in this Senate, I’ve spoken on the need to restore Australia’s productive capacity through the construction of new infrastructure. It’s a simple metric: the living standard of each Australian is expressed as our gross domestic product divided by population. With five million new Australians in the last 10 years, 2½ million of those under this Labor government, our gross domestic product is being split into new slices for the new arrivals faster than it’s growing. As a result, the standard of living of individual Australians is going backwards and has fallen by eight per cent since Labor took over. Did anyone hear Prime Minister Albanese promise in his 2022 election pitch to reduce the living standards of everyday Australians by eight per cent? I didn’t. The answer is clearly and certainly to reduce immigration, although the government must embrace the other side of that equation as well, which is building new infrastructure to grow our productive capacity.
One Nation are taking a platform to this election that includes building a national rail loop to take hundreds of thousands of truck movements off the roads, making freight handling cheaper and more efficient, reducing supermarket prices and making Australia more competitive. That’s vital in a large country with a small population; logistics is tops. Our platform also includes a new northern rail crossing from Port Hedland to Moranbah and the Port of Gladstone in Queensland to open the east Pilbara and the north-west minerals province in Queensland to the international market, facilitating exports worth hundreds of billions of dollars and tens or hundreds of thousands of breadwinner jobs. There’s also a multifunction corridor to take water, power and internet along the new northern crossing railway to bring town services to more than 100 remote communities across the Top End; Hells Gates Dam in Far North Queensland to provide flood mitigation, water security and hydropower; and the Urannah water project and pipeline, amongst others. What will be the source of these funds? There will be $90 billion from cutting waste and duplication, itemised. See our website; it’s fully costed.
Each year, we will put $40 billion of that back into people’s pockets. For example, couples with children income-splitting will save almost $10,000 a year. It’s fully costed. Each year, we will invest $20 billion in infrastructure to increase productive capacity to increase our children’s wages. Each year, we will pay down record debt of $30 billion, which is estimated to become $50 billion the year after next per year, to reduce interest. Only through building our productive capacity can we hope to provide for the millions of new arrivals, generate new government revenue from increased economic activity and restore wealth and opportunity to all who call this beautiful country home.
It’s time to take back control of our borders, protect Australian jobs, and ensure a future where Australians come first.
One Nation will:
🔸 Deport 75,000 illegal migrants – those that have overstayed their visas, illegal workers and unlawful non-residents that undermine national security, drive down wages, and take advantage of public services meant for Australians.
🔸 Make migration net negative, which means more leave Australia than arrive – and the population decreases.
🔸 Stop the skilled visa rorting that allows cheap foreign labour to undercut Australian workers.
🔸 End the student visa loopholes that turn study into a backdoor to permanent residency or low-wage labour.
🔸 Stop the Administrative Review Tribunal being abused with endless, weaponised appeals that clog the system and delay rightful deportations. Immigration enforcement must not be held hostage by legal loopholes.
🔸 Reintroduce Temporary Protection Visas a proven, effective policy that prevents permanent residency through the back door and deters illegal arrivals.
🔸 Deport any visa holder who breaks the law. Weak law enforcement policies have put Australians in danger for too long. If you commit a crime, you lose your visa and the right to stay.
🔸 Introduce an eight-year waiting period for citizenship and welfare, ensuring new arrivals contribute before they take.
🔸 Refuse entry to migrants from nations known to foster extremist ideologies that are incompatible with Australian values and way of life.
🔸 Withdraw from the UN Refugee Convention. because Australia will not be dictated to by foreign organisations when deciding who we accept into our nation on humanitarian grounds.
★ Immigration is our special sauce ★ There’s a skills shortage ★ Multiculturalism is our strength
These are all lies told to the Australia people.
In reality, this insane migration program is the reason why Australians can’t afford a house, see a doctor on time or get their kid into a school.
No more! One Nation will make migration net-negative. Some of the temporary migrants need to return home so that our infrastructure and services can catch up with our population.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/LBf1XWBn0r4/maxresdefault.jpg7201280Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2025-03-25 14:47:142025-03-25 14:47:20Net-Negative Migration Will Ease Cost of Living Stress
I asked about the mechanism for the Mutual Recognition of Qualifications between Australia and India, which recognises that an Australian degree awarded here is equivalent to an Indian degree awarded in India. It also allows Indian colleges, including private ones, to offer degrees to anyone globally, which can then be used to improve their chances of getting into Australia as skilled migrants.
However, there are concerns about the integrity of this system, given that India is notorious for exam cheating. This raises the risk of admitting individuals who may not possess the skills their degrees suggest.
Transcript
The mechanism for the mutual recognition of qualifications between Australia and India recognises an Australian degree awarded to an Australian as being equal to an Indian degree awarded to an Indian, including online study. It’s not only degrees. It’s everything from school certificates to doctorates, although some further work may be required for occupations having professional associations, like medicine, although there is no requirement to do so. This is despite the level of cheating and selling qualifications that goes on in India. I await the legal challenges to being refused a job based on a degree the employer knows is rubbish but which the government has decreed is equal to an Australian degree.
The agreement allows an Indian visa-holder to apply for any job in Australia for which having a degree makes their chances of success higher. That’s almost anything. In other words, the vast majority of these new migrants will not work in their area of qualification, which might be a good thing. One Nation opposes this agreement. Twenty per cent of HECS debts in Australia are for amounts over $40,000. Our children listen to their parents, the media and politicians. They study hard, go to university, get saddled with a near insurmountable HECS debt, and then they head out into the workforce to pay it off only to discover they’re competing with an Indian degree of questionable origin that cost a fraction of their own. Of course, Indian graduates can work cheaper than our graduates can afford to.
One Nation will tear up this agreement. We’ll offer mortgages through a people’s bank to young Australians that include the option of rolling their HECS debt into their mortgage with just a five per cent deposit at five per cent fixed interest over 25 years with the homebuyers own super account allowed to provide the deposit and share in the capital appreciation. While Labor is selling out young Australians, One Nation offers real solutions to young Australians. I note in the seconds I have left that every year $11.1 billion was sent home by foreign students, with Indians being the second largest on the list.
We had hoped that the new Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) would be a significant improvement over the old Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), which was overwhelmed with thousands of immigration appeals, often being assessed by Members who were friends of the Labor government.
The new ART was supposed to be made up of Members based on merit, which would be a significant improvement—provided the new appointments are not again filled with Labor mates.
I proposed the creation of a new Refugee and Immigration Review Tribunal to handle only Migration disputes. This would alleviate the heavy caseload that is delaying decisions in the new ART and help expedite the overall review process.
Transcript
Thank you, Deputy President. We hoped that the new Administrative Review Tribunal would be a significant improvement over its predecessor, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The old Administrative Appeals Tribunal was a failure. It was top-heavy with Labor lawyers, making it a Labor lawyer fest with appointments made based on a reward system for leftist-aligned lawyers, and there are plenty of them—lawyers doing the bidding of their Labor masters, pushing poor Labor policies, and enshrining woke and harmful leftist ideals.
The Liberals and Nationals stacked appointments to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, favouring lawyers sympathetic to the LNP. So much for justice under the uniparty! This stacking was a recipe for disaster and a significant reason why Labor’s jumbled and catastrophic immigration policy continues to fail Australians and continues to hurt Australians catastrophically. Look at the number of people who are homeless and who are sleeping under bridges, in caravans, in their cars and in tents. If a noncitizen’s visa has expired or has been breached, to slow down the deportation process, the decision to deport could be delayed through an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. That is a fact, and it was done many times, ensuring that there was a high chance that bleeding-heart Lefties would delay or overturn the decision. Few Australians know that there are currently more than 75,000 illegals in Australia right now. More than 75,000 foreigners are living here in Australia on cancelled or expired visas, taking up homes that could be used by those people who are currently homeless. The whereabouts of these illegals is unknown, and the government doesn’t care, with limited resources to locate these illegals for deportation.
It’s welcome that the current membership of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal will be declared vacant and that vacancies will be filled on a merit based system. My concerns are that the Administrative Review Tribunal membership will still be loaded with Labor government favourites and that the workload will still create long waiting periods before appropriate reconsideration of major decisions. It would be better to remove the review process for immigration decisions from the Administrative Review Tribunal and consider the reintroduction of a refugee or immigration review tribunal, to ensure that the Administrative Review Tribunal does not become bogged down with migration appeals, as it is currently. Instead of a delay mechanism for illegals to exploit, abuse and avoid at Australians’ expense, we need to deport illegals. We need to deport more than 75,000 lawbreakers and free up housing for Australians—working families who are currently sleeping in their cars, in tents or under bridges. Australian families deserve roofs over their heads and beds for their children.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is currently struggling to attract young recruits. This issue has multiple facets. In this discussion, we discuss these challenges, along with topics like immigration and more.
Transcript
Mike McLaren: The ADF have problems, it seems, getting young people who want to join up the forces, whatever they are. Now, there’s various aspects to that, but I want to discuss it now with One Nation Centre for Queensland, Malcolm Roberts. Malcolm, good morning. Thank you for doing this.
Malcolm Roberts: Good morning Mike. Thank you for having me.
Mike McLaren: Now, one of the issues, it would seem, is that the idea of joining up the forces has been lumped into one, whereas experience shows with other countries, including our own, that it would be better to build on the traditions that the Navy has, the Air Force has, the military have. What do you think?
Malcolm Roberts: I agree with you. The Australian military, all the forces, the Navy, Air Force and Army have a fantastic record, each of them. And I learned from a couple of, very well, senior officers some time ago, that the key to the Australian Armed forces, each of the three departments separately, the key to each one of them is mateship and Australian values and that’s really important that the sense of tradition that comes with that. When you have that sense of tradition and the culture being reinforced, especially by leadership at the top, then you have that culture propagating itself and people want to come in. Now Mike, there is another problem. In addition to not being able to attract younger people, they’re losing a lot of older people.
Mike McLaren: Oh, yeah.
Malcolm Roberts: And the key is morale and the morale is low and why is the morale low? Because we are focusing on too much of this diversity, equity, inclusivity, nonsense and people can see that not everyone’s equal, but you’ve got to have some basic skills before you can get onto the front line. And the key to the Australian mateship is that everyone has a fine training standard and when they’re past that, you know that if you are next to me in the trench, you can count on me and I can count on you, the skills and the mateship, and that’s vital. But when you’re concerned about some of the people around you not being up to scratch because they went through, based upon DEI, not on merit, then that’s going to destroy that mateship. It’s going to destroy the reliability and that’s destroying the culture and it’s coming from the top of the armed forces. They’re eating away at the culture. They have no clue what they’re doing.
Mike McLaren: The whole concept of DEI does seem to be fading, particularly in the US. Whether it will fade as sharply here, I don’t know. But are we going to change do you think? Is the realisation upon us that DEI sounds nice but doesn’t deliver the result really?
Malcolm Roberts: DEI in the case of companies like Boeing and Qantas spells D-I-E, die, and it’s death. So merit has to be restored. In the United States, they’ve had some incidents and they’re waking up to that. And of course along comes Trump and says, “That’s it. No more.” What we’ve been doing with some of that DEI in the Senate is just ridiculing it and smashing it and people are starting to wake up. The Greens who are the foot soldiers for that international concept from the UN and the World United Forum, they’re now getting embarrassed when they push that DEI. So the tide is changing. Trump is going to be one foot on the accelerator and I think it’ll come the same with so many other things in society. Trump has said it’s okay to say that wind turbines are terrible. It’s okay to say that climate change is rubbish. It’s okay to say so many things now that only a few of us have spoken up about.
Mike McLaren: Yes, indeed. We were discussing the other day why it is that the ADF is having trouble recruiting and one of the elements that came into that discussion were patriotism, is it lacking? Somebody told me yesterday that the Gen Z’s don’t support the indicators of patriotism, for example, Australia Day, ANZAC Day. But I had a good look around and it seems to me that might’ve been the case a year or two ago, but that has turned and young people now really are supportive of, well, I guess, indicators of patriotism is the way I see it.
Malcolm Roberts: I think you’re spot on, Mike. There are two things that are fundamentally the foundations for organisation of human societies, human civilizations, and that’s the nation state and the family. The United Nations, as some of the senior people, admitted that they’re on a move to a long, decades-long move to put in place of one unelected socialist global governance. They want to destroy nation states. You can see it in immigration policies they’re pushing. You can see it in some of the other policies they’re pushing, their economic policies. And we don’t have any need, any responsibility to comply with the UN. We should be sticking with standing up for Australia and sticking up with standing for families. We talked to men ago about the DEI. That is about breaking up families. The UN has admitted that. Now coming back to that, what we’ve seen is the people that are waking up to the fashion and the nonsense and truth is starting to come back to Australia in so many ways. People are realising it’s all crap.
Mike McLaren: Just on the business of how young people feel about the country, I think you make a good point when you say one of the reasons why young people might want to join one of the forces is because they want purpose in their life. And you can see that even with a lot of people that I think are misguided with the causes they pursue, they do that because they want some purpose in their life, don’t they?
Malcolm Roberts: Yes. Everyone wants purpose in our lives. The most switched on age and group in my opinion, from my experience, is the adolescent male. They are really switched on. The delinquents we see in most of our cities, and I mean all of our cities, in Queensland, provincial cities including Brisbane, the crime that we see being committed by young people and across the races and across the demographics, it’s not a racial thing, it’s not an income thing, it’s not whether you come from a rich family or a poor family, it’s a lack of meaning, lack of purpose. I mean, young children, they really are children. Young men, when they’re told that the world is going to end in five years because of global boiling and so many other things, and Covid is going to destroy you, all of this nonsense that, what’s to live for? What’s the purpose? So they go and have a bit of what they call fun. But what we’ve seen time and time again, the success rate of helping these people to find some meaning, find some purpose in life, is phenomenal. And once they find that meaning, find that purpose, then it really changes their lives and brings them back into society as contributors and caring. And that’s really far more powerful. A person who cares and considers other people is far more powerful and contributes to society is far more powerful than a delinquent smashing a car.
Mike McLaren: Oh indeed. And it’s much more satisfying for the individual.
Malcolm Roberts: Yes, much more. And one of the other things is that we’re bringing people in record numbers. At the moment when I say we, the Albanese government, and it’s something that the liberal party has done too. Liberal and Labour both pushed hard, heavy, massive immigration since John Howard doubled immigration during his term and he puts this on the big immigration agenda. The Labour Party has brought in close to one and a half million people in the last two years and kept about 1 million people, after you take away the people who’ve left. Now, we had 1.9 million people on temporary visas before Covid. We now have two and a half million people on temporary visas. And then Albanese said, you would only have high immigration. It’s actually catastrophic and massive migration. Young people, that migration has driven the demand for houses through the roof. Rents, people building new houses and people paying off an existing house, are becoming unaffordable, not becoming, they are unaffordable for young people and young people cannot see any possibility quite often of getting a house. How do you start a family when you haven’t got a house?
Mike McLaren: Indeed.
Malcolm Roberts: When you can’t even afford rent. It’s not just meaning and purpose, it’s also looking after family because the age to have a family is strong in most of us.
Mike McLaren: Indeed, yes, that’s a whole story in itself. In fact, if you want to come back on the programme, in the future, we might go into that a bit more because I’ve been looking at that myself, the replacement rate and what’s expected. And of course in the big cities, the story today is that everybody’s going to live in a shoebox. But I don’t know about you, I’m not Nostradamus, but I’ve seen that coming for quite a while now. Anyway, Malcolm, I do appreciate your comments and thank you for coming on the programme this morning.
Malcolm Roberts: You’re welcome, Mike and that’s why we’re advocating a pause, a cut in immigration and actually deporting lawbreakers, sending them home and deporting those who break the law. So I’m happy to come in and talk about immigration anytime you want. It is one of the major serious problems that are affecting housing prices in this country.
Mike McLaren: Oh, absolutely it is. And it’s very clear that the people do not want what the government is doing, but they keep doing it. Anyway, Malcolm, appreciate your time today. Thank you very much for that.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2GB.jpg?fit=756%2C425&ssl=1425756Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2025-02-03 12:49:052025-02-13 14:48:212GB with Michael McLaren: Australian Defence Force
Australia desperately needs housing and population policies that prioritise Australians FIRST. Both the Liberal-Labor uni-party have been implementing massive immigration, opening the floodgates despite making Australians homeless.
Australia has reached a record 2.43 million temporary visa holders, excluding tourists, which translates to a need for up to a million extra houses.
During COVID, when our borders were closed, rental vacancies near universities increased, showing that fewer international students mean more homes for Australians. The truth is, some universities and private education/training providers are abusing the system, using student visas as a backdoor for work rights, and eventually staying in Australia permanently. Many on student visas work full-time illegally and send money back home, with remittances hitting a record $11 billion in 2023. The claim that international students are a major export is a lie, as most work to support themselves here.
Until housing and infrastructure catch up, immigration needs to be dropped to zero and we have to ban foreign ownership. You can only trust One Nation to put Australians first.
Transcript
Thank you to Senator Pocock for raising this issue. Australia desperately needs housing and population policies that work for Australians. The Labor government has no coherent or practical policies. Both chiefs of the Liberal-Labor unity party have been implementing massive immigration. It’s essentially: ‘Open the floodgates to arrivals, no matter how many Australians are made homeless.’ We need a policy that does the opposite and puts Australians first.
Australia just hit a record level of temporary visa holders. Excluding tourists and other short-stay visitors, temporary visa holders in the country now number 2.43 million people. This blows the previous record of 1.9 million out of the water. That’s up to a million extra houses needed for these people. And 680,000 of these are international students—another record. This is putting untold pressure on the housing crisis. When the borders were closed during COVID, nearly all suburbs close to universities experienced higher rental vacancy rates. That means that when international students couldn’t come into the country there were more homes available for Australians. Now, who would have thought?
The truth is that some universities and private vocational education and training providers are completely abusing the system. A student visa is more often seen as a backdoor way to get working rights in Australia and eventually staying here forever. Hundreds of thousands of people on temporary student visas end up illegally working full-time hours and sending the money back to their home country. Personal remittance flows out of Australia almost perfectly correlate with the number of student visa holders in the country. On the latest figures in 2023, the transfer of money out of Australia hit a record $11 billion—out of the country. We can only assume that it has increased since then.
A particular lie is being peddled in this debate. That lie is that international students are one of Australia’s largest exports, at $40 billion a year. That figure assumes an international student arrives here on day one with all their money for course fees, rent, food and transport bills, and other spending already saved in their bank account. In reality most students end up working here for the money to support themselves and sending the remainder back home. The claim that international students are one of our biggest exports is simply not true because it is does not align with reality. Until housing and infrastructure catch up, One Nation will drop net immigration to zero.
