The Albanese Labor government's latest Federal Budget has quietly revealed its true intentions on migration. While publicly claiming to have brought numbers under control, the figures show a clear commitment to sustained high levels of immigration, 1.22 million net new migrants before the end of the decade, an increase of 55,000 over previous planning. This averages around 243,000 net migrants per year, far above what most Australians want and well beyond levels that can be sustainably absorbed without straining housing, infrastructure, wages, and social cohesion.
This is not an accident or a mere policy oversight. It represents a deliberate strategy of using mass immigration to prop up headline GDP growth while the per capita economy continues to shrink. Since Labor came to power, overall economic growth has been recorded at around 6.8 percent, but once adjusted for rapid population increase, real per-person output has actually declined. Australians are getting a smaller slice of a slightly larger pie, with higher rents, congested services, and declining living standards as the direct result.
Labor's approach mirrors the preferences of globalist elites and big business interests who benefit from an endless supply of cheap labour, expanded consumer demand, and suppressed wage pressures. Property developers, universities reliant on international students, and large corporations gain from this model. Ordinary Australians, particularly young people trying to enter the housing market or secure stable employment, pay the price through inflated costs and reduced opportunities.
The contradiction is stark. In 2023, then-Minister Clare O'Neil candidly admitted that Australia's migration program had become an "uncapped, unplanned temporary program" causing enormous economic and social problems. Temporary migrants had ballooned from around 1 million in 2007 to 1.9 million. Yet under Labor, that number has now surged past 2.6 million. Far from fixing the system, the government has doubled down, ignoring public sentiment and its own earlier warnings.
Recent polling by the Institute of Public Affairs confirms that nearly 80 percent of Australians, including many migrants, want migration cut to 100,000 or fewer per year. Labor's budget ignores this democratic preference in favour of a high-migration model that serves narrow vested interests and aligns with broader globalist agendas of demographic transformation and weakened national sovereignty.
High migration without corresponding increases in housing supply and infrastructure is a proven recipe for declining living standards. It exacerbates pressure on welfare systems, healthcare, and education while making it harder for young Australians to get ahead. The Budget's migration forecasts expose the gap between Labor's public rhetoric and its actual planning: more arrivals, more strain, and continued neglect of the core issues facing everyday citizens.
Australia needs a migration program that prioritises the national interest: skilled workers who fill genuine gaps, strong integration, and numbers calibrated to infrastructure capacity rather than political or ideological goals. Labor's current trajectory serves globalist rulers and entrenched interests far better than it serves the Australian people. Until that changes, per capita decline and public dissatisfaction will only deepen. The Budget numbers do not lie. The government has chosen more mass immigration, and Australians will continue to bear the costs.
https://ipa.org.au/latest-news/labor-is-budgeting-more-migration