On August 31, 2025, thousands of Australians took to the streets in capital cities for the March for Australia (MfA), demanding an end to what Stephen Saunders, writing for Macrobusiness on September 6, 2025, calls the "immigration deluge." The Albanese Labor government, backed by a powerful "Big Australia" lobby, has overseen a record-breaking 1.4 million net migrants from 2022 to 2025, 80% higher than any previous period. Saunders argues this flood, enabled by a bipartisan "uni-party" with the Liberals, fuels housing crises, erodes social cohesion, and prioritises corporate interests over citizens. The MfA's push for low migration, met with predictable "racist" slurs from the establishment, is a necessary stand against a system that dismisses the will of 80% of Australians who want reduced immigration. This blog piece supports Saunders' case, highlighting how mass immigration, propped up by a hypocritical elite, is strangling Australia's economic and cultural fabric, and why the marchers' demands for democratic accountability must be heeded.
Saunders cites Australian Bureau of Statistics data showing net migration of 1.4 million from 2022 to 2025, dwarfing the previous record set under Kevin Rudd. This surge, driven by temporary visas for students and low-skilled workers, has overwhelmed Australia's housing market and infrastructure. Sydney, now the second least affordable housing market globally, saw 120,073 net migrants by September 2023, while 29,505 residents fled New South Wales for other states, per colitco.com. The result? Soaring rents, unattainable homeownership, and strained public services, hospitals with seven-hour waits, clogged roads, and a cost-of-living crisis squeezing ordinary Australians.
The economic argument for mass migration, bolstering a "resilient economy" or "skilled workforce," is a sham. Saunders exposes the real pillars of Australia's economy: a gas cartel, endless immigration, housing speculation, government jobs, and resource giveaways. Far from driving innovation, high migration has coincided with a shrivelled manufacturing sector and plummeting R&D investment. The influx of low-skilled workers, often on temporary visas, fills cut-price jobs with dodgy conditions, undermining wages and exploiting migrants themselves. This isn't progress; it's a rigged system benefiting the top 1-20%, developers, universities, and corporate elites, while the majority lose out.
The MfA faced a barrage of accusations, neo-Nazi, racist, un-Australian, from Labor ministers, the Greens, and media outlets like the ABC and The Guardian. Saunders rightly calls this a "knee-jerk slur," designed to shut down debate. The establishment's refusal to engage with evidence, like the 1.4 million net migration figure, betrays their fear of accountability. Instead of addressing housing pain or infrastructure strain, they weaponise identity politics, accusing marchers of hating migrants, particularly Indians, whose recent influx surpasses historical Greek and Italian migration.
Saunders, citing TAPRI's Katharine Betts, identifies the Big Australia lobby as a coalition of industry, developers, and a moralising Labor-Greens voter base, young, educated, and financially secure, who brand migration critics as racist. This 20% exerts disproportionate influence, muting the 80% who want lower migration, per Lowy Institute polls. Their "moral" stance is humbug: by championing mass migration, they exacerbate housing shortages for everyone, including themselves, while shaming dissenters into silence. Albanese's government, with its racially selective deals with Modi's India, granting special student and qualification privileges, further exposes their hypocrisy. If anyone's playing the race card, it's Labor, rigging demographics for political gain.
Saunders' "uni-party" critique hits the mark: both Labor and the Liberals have colluded in this migration surge. From Morrison's border reopening in 2021-22 to Albanese's October 2022 Budget, which set high migration targets only to exceed them sixfold, the policy is deliberate. Labor's claim of "halving" immigration is a lie; net migration was 446,000 in 2023-24, down only slightly from 536,000 the prior year, per government data. The opposition, cowed by the same corporate and woke pressures, offers no real resistance, leaving voters voiceless.
This betrayal of democracy is stark. Saunders notes that Australians never consented to Albanese's "Huge Australia" plan, which prioritises Treasury's growth metrics over citizens' needs. The government's obsession with net zero and identity politics, symbolised by envoys for antisemitism, Islamophobia, and social cohesion, masks its failure to deliver affordable housing or energy. As Saunders puts it, a resource-rich nation like Australia should have 'world-cheap energy prices" and "world-low population pressures," yet the uni-party delivers the opposite, chasing UN-driven climate goals while China and India sidestep them.
The MfA, despite its opaque funding and occasional extremist fringes, represents a legitimate cry for change. Saunders, who attended the Canberra march, refutes media distortions: it drew thousands, not hundreds, was peaceful, and faced hostility from counter-protesters, not police. The marchers' demands, lower migration, stronger identity, and an end to corporate-driven policy, reflect the majority's will. Their claim that recent Indian migration outpaces a century of Greek and Italian arrivals isn't racism; it's a fact highlighting the unprecedented scale of Albanese's policy.
The establishment's outrage, particularly over MfA's Indian focus, dodges the real issue: no democratic electorate should be forced to accept a new diaspora without consent. Albanese's deals with Modi's India, favouring one group with special privileges, undermine fairness and fuel division. Saunders argues the real outrage should target Labor's divide-and-conquer tactics, which pit communities against each other, while ignoring the housing pain felt by all, including migrants.
Saunders flips the script: the true extremists are Labor and their Big Australia allies, pursuing a radical worldview that threatens Australia's future. Their policies, extreme immigration, net-zero dogma, and identity politics, have driven a 45% population increase since 2000, unmatched globally. This isn't sustainable; it's reckless. Manufacturing has collapsed, economic complexity has withered, and housing affordability has plummeted, yet Labor doubles down, jeering at protesters like Morgan Cox who dare highlight the crisis.
Albanese's "social cohesion" agenda is a sham, fostering division through sectarian envoys and ethnic electorates. His government's hypocrisy, condemning marchers as racists while exploiting migrants for cheap labour, exposes their true intent: power, not progress. Saunders' call for "disrespectful conversation" is spot-on. Polite debate has failed; it's time for voters to demand accountability, rejecting the "racist" smear and insisting on policies that prioritise Australians' needs.
The March for Australia is a vital pushback against a Big Australia lobby that thrives on mass immigration, housing speculation, and corporate greed. Saunders' argument exposes the uni-party's betrayal: a 1.4 million net migration surge, ignored by a hypocritical elite who silence critics with slurs. The housing crisis, strained infrastructure, and eroded cohesion are real consequences of Labor's policies, not the marchers' prejudice. Australians, demonstrably low on racism by global standards, deserve a democratic say. If 80% want lower migration, that should be the policy. The MfA, flaws and all, signals a growing resistance to Albanese's radical vision. It's time to dismantle the "racist" canard, hold the uni-party accountable, and restore an Australia that works for its people, not its elites.
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2025/09/the-march-against-endless-immigration-and-housing-pain/