Prof. Bob Birrell

Demographers Bob Birrell and Ernest Healy of Monash University have released their most recent report, entitled Party for Freedom: ‘Scare Jobs: Migrants or Locals at the end of the Queue?. This damning report highlights the incompatibility of recent and current immigration policies sponsored by both Labor and Liberal governments.

Over 250,000 young people leave school each year. They are then faced with the task of competing with a similar number of those on Working Holiday Maker (WHM) visas, coupled with Australia’s population growth of 1.7% or 370,000 a year (including 214,000 permanent migrants) and a pool of over 1.1 million foreigners (excluding New Zealanders) on temporary work visas. This has created a dire situation for locals – especially the young local workers without post-school education.

University educated job seekers are also finding it increasingly difficult to secure employment. For example, Australia has an over-supply of accountants, and despite this, large numbers of foreign accountants are still being granted work visas.

Table 1 Temporary entrants in Australia as of March 2012 and March 2013

Full Total 92,490 more temporary workers in Australia from March 2012 to 2013, despite rising youth unemployment and heavy net overseas immigration.

Table 1 above details the full extent of temporary entrants and temporary visa holders with work rights in Australia. The 457 and WHM visa categories are rising drastically, taking away employment opportunities from Australians in low skilled service jobs, and the hospitality and construction industries.

There is a lot of misinformation being pushed by self-appointed demographers, government ministers, political parties and vested interests on the “need” for more foreign labour.

Self-appointed KPMG Demographer Bernard Salt is well known for his incorrect statements when commenting on demographics and the cry for ever-increasing levels of immigration. In his recent book, The Big Tilt, he claims: ‘2011 is a break point year. From this year onwards, more baby boomers exit the workforce than generation Ys enter’. The above excerpt from Bernard’s book is propaganda and not statistically correct.

The lack of genuine public discussion on the pressing issue of high levels of immigration, especially third world immigration is adding to our woes. More than ever the nation needs robust public discussion on the matter. Debate needs to come from a broad range of stakeholders, including the Australian workers who are being displaced and retired early due to successive governments’ preference for unsustainable immigration.

The negativity and incompatibility of successive immigration policies have contributed to growing dole queues, while increasing numbers of foreign workers on temporary work visas and new migrants displace Australians in the job market. Regrettably, it seems our government has been shackled to pro-population growth advocates and the lobbying of well-organised special interest groups.

Party for Freedom believes protection of the Australian worker is paramount. The Australian ‘battler’ worker deserves a better deal from our government. It does not make sense to import large numbers of foreign workers on temporary visas or maintain high levels of permanent immigration when real job growth has stalled creating an environment of lost opportunity for local job seekers.

It is time for the Australian government to ‘do the right thing’ and shut the gate on large-scale immigration, so that local workers, especially the young, are protected from the encroaching, foreign, job hungry multitudes.