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This 'Jobs and Skills' Summit is sending us straight back onto the Big Australia hamster wheel

By Stephen Saunders - posted Thursday, 1 September 2022

While Chalmers is yet to issue Labor's own net migration targets. But presumably he will, no later than the October Budget .

I would expect him to approach or exceed the figure of 235,000 found in last year's Intergenerational Report . For comparison, the average net migration was 215,000, over immigration surge years of 2005-2020.

Net migration consistently topping 200,000? That's way more than the electorate and the environment can begin to sustain. For comparison, the average over 1991-2004 was under 90,000.

Albanese, in his ultra-willing gallop to repair the over-hyped visa "backlog" and recoup those migrants allegedly "lost" during border closure, might also generate a huge one-year net-migration effect.

He could even beat Rudd's record of 316,000. Set in 2008 , when he himself was Infrastructure Minister. Anyone for congestion busting?