A fair part of Monday 6 May 2024’s Mediawatch program was an attack on Jordan Knight’s MigrationWatch organisation.
Barry takes great exception to its claim that “Nearly 25% of all social housing in NSW is lived in by foreign-born residents” although “refugees and asylum seekers make up only one per cent of those in social housing”.
Barry concedes at the end “Well, let’s agree that immigration is an issue we should be debating, it is at record levels and it does put a strain on rents, services and house prices. But it also has benefits. We are a nation of migrants. And Australia is a multicultural success story.”
But this concession follows a string of dubious arguments, asserted as if they were self-evident truths.
For instance Barry claims that to have 25% of migrants using social housing is entirely reasonable, since “the proportion of foreign born residents in New South Wales [is] … actually around 30 per cent”.
Now no one should object to an immigrant who has been legitimately accepted as an Australian citizen, and who subsequently suffers a misfortune that makes them dependant on social housing, being helped with housing. But voters have been led to believe that immigrants will be disproportionately underrepresented in needing benefits like social housing. Knight’s figures, which Barry does not dispute, suggest a possibility that we may have been fooled.
He fails to mention that that our very high levels of immigration have been persistently demanded by vested interests who claim that there is a desperate shortage of labour or skilled labour, and that such migrants will walk into employment once here. (In reality they may be looking for a surplus of workers among whom they can pick and choose, leaving many unemployed and others vulnerable to abuse by employers. No need to remind you of the scandals that regularly surface in this area.)
Governments assure us that immigrants, apart from refugees, are hand-picked to benefit the public purse and not to be a drain on it. (The so-called “skilled migration” component has always been huge.) Some immigrants, eager to get into a richer country, may well have made unverified claims about their skills and employability.
Barry’s piece also shows disturbing signs of emotional rhetoric, like the non-sequitur that “[immigration] also has benefits. We are a nation of migrants.” And the muddled “If you are foreign you are not considered Australian? Tell that to the “first” settlers.” (Does the fact that Aborigines were massively immigrated upon without their consent (and often with violent force) mean that there is no such thing as Australian citizenship today? Or that citizens have no right to be consulted about immigration levels, or to consider their own advantage rather than that of those who wish to join them?” This is approaching Joe Biden’s recent suggestion that nations like Japan and India that are not countries of high immigration are “xenophobic.”
It is alarming that Barry, while lecturing others on bad logic, is unaware of the shaky logic behind his own passionate convictions.
Here is the ABC’s transcript, from https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/migrants/103811288
From tonight’s Mediawatch Program.
Transcript (Reformatted for clarity by CDB Editor).
But now to the hot-button issue of immigration and an inflammatory tweet from 2GB’s Ben Fordham:
This is unbelievable! Nearly 25% of all social housing in NSW is lived in by foreign-born residents. Meanwhile, Aussie families are being left in limbo. - X, @BenFordhamLive, 29 April, 2024
Yes foreigners are stopping real Australians from getting a home, says Ben. And on 2GB’s website the message was even more explicit:
‘Aussies missing out’ … - 2GB (online), 29 April, 2024
With Ben himself telling listeners:
BEN FORDHAM: Well, it’s getting harder and harder and harder to get a fair go. Shocking new figures have exposed how families from overseas are taking up more than 35,000 social housing tenancies across the state of New South Wales. 35,000! That means 23 per cent of all social housing tenancies are lived in by foreign-born residents. - Ben Fordham Live, 2GB, 29 April, 2024
What an outrage! And what is the proportion of foreign born residents in New South Wales? Oh, it’s actually around 30 per cent. And in Sydney, it’s around 40 per cent. So maybe the story is that migrants — of which I am one — are taking up fewer places than you’d expect. But even without the figures making Ben’s claim look foolish, the tone of this message is disturbing. With the former leader of the Australian Democrats, Cheryl Kernot, labelling it ‘racist misinformation designed to divide us’ and The Australian’s former cricket writer Peter Lalor branding it ‘Pauline Hanson level xenophobia/racism.’
And asking:
If you are foreign you are not considered Australian? Tell that to the “first” settlers. - X, @plalor, 29 April, 2024
So, where had Ben found the story? In a Sunday Telegraph exclusive the previous day headlined:
"Migrants right at home," - Sunday Telegraph, 28 April, 2024
With Jordan Knight from Migration Watch Australia suggesting in the online version that migrants might be getting preferential treatment:
“We … need to know if recently arrived migrants are being placed in the front of a queue before locals.” - Sunday Telegraph, 28 April, 2024
Even though he admitted that refugees and asylum seekers make up only one per cent of those in social housing.
So, who exactly is Jordan Knight? Well, what Ben Fordham and the Tele didn’t tell us is he’s a former One Nation staffer, who works for New South Wales politician and Mark Latham ally, Rod Roberts. And for some in the media, he is flavour of the month, scoring an interview with Fordham, a column in the Telegraph, and articles in the Daily Mail, billing him as:
Migration Watch Australia founder Jordan Knight, 29 …- Daily Mail Australia, 5 April, 2024
He also popped up in news bulletins on 2GB, 3AW and 2CC in late April with the same tag:
NEWSREADER: Jordan Knight from Migration Watch … - News, 3AW, 26 April, 2024
NEWSREADER: Migration Watch Australia founder, Jordan Knight … - News, 2CC, 26 April, 2024
NEWSREADER: Migration Watch Australia founder, Jordan Knight … - News, 2GB, 26 April, 2024
And what is Migration Watch Australia? Apparently, not much more than him.
Boasting 8000 followers on TikTok and around 7000 on X but with a Facebook page that has just 56 likes and 93 followers which features lots of Jordan in videos like this:
JORDAN KNIGHT: Australia is a beautiful country but it is a country in decline. Recent ABS data shows that nearly 800,000 migrants moved to Australia in just 12 months alone. This is the highest number of migrants ever and it’s putting incredible amounts of pressure on our public services, our wages, our roads, our police, ambulances are getting ramped, hospital wait times are getting longer, life is getting harder in Australia. And it’s for one reason and one reason only. - Facebook, Migration Watch Australia, 10 April, 2024
And you know what that is: it’s all those migrants, whom Jordan also blames for a rise in violent crime, telling his followers on X:
Speak to any cop and they will tell you that a new level of violence is being imported into Australia. - X, @jhk______, 25 November, 2023
And Migration Watch Australia pushes similar messages, claiming in a post on X last week that immigration is ‘smashing Australians.’ That account links to Migration Watch Australia’s website and an online petition to pause immigration, claiming it can increase crime, unemployment and negative social behaviours and threaten democracy because, quote, ‘immigrants disproportionately vote for socially democratic parties, such as Labor’.
Outrageous.
And Knight’s political views also bubble up in the right-wing Spectator magazine where he repeatedly bashes the immigration theme, warning that Conservatives must win the battle, multiculturalism is failing, and immigration is tearing the country apart.
In another of many columns for the magazine, he laments:
Once upon a time, things were good and you didn’t have to talk about immigration. Those golden days are over. - Spectator Australia, 21 March, 2024
He then goes on to warn about Middle Eastern and African gangs and innocent people caught in the crossfire. And concludes:
The conditions for a serious social and political flashpoint are starting to emerge.- Spectator Australia, 21 March, 2024
Jordan’s warnings clearly meet the approval of Spectator editor and Sky News host Rowan Dean, who has published eight columns from Knight in the last year alone.
So, what do we make of all the uncritical attention that he and his Migration Watch are getting? Well, let’s agree that immigration is an issue we should be debating, it is at record levels and it does put a strain on rents, services and house prices. But it also has benefits. We are a nation of migrants. And Australia is a multicultural success story.
And if the media promote Jordan Knight’s inflammatory claims without challenging them they could help provoke exactly the sort of conflict that Knight is warning about.
It is irresponsible, it’s xenophobic, and it divides Australia.
We sought comment from Jordan Knight. He did not get back to us.
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