Labor, as all governments before them, know that migration improves the national balance sheet.

Migrants bring money into the country which they spend; migrants get jobs and pay taxes; everything is taxed; so, the treasury coffers swell and the government can boast.

In May 2023 Labor did boast as it handed down the first budget surplus since 2007; a surplus due to an increase of $33b in income tax receipts driven by high employment, and $61b in company tax receipts, driven by record breaking commodity prices.

Opening the doors of this nation to immigrants was a deliberate, cynical and callous act of a government that knew full well the effect another 500k migrants would have on the comfort and welfare of the Australian people – yet they did it.

It is a sad story for Australia.

The forecast migrant intake for 2023-24 is 190,000.

DISTRACTED

After Labor’s election in 2022, and as the nation attempted to get back to something like normal after the pandemic, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calculatingly distracted the Australian people away from the task at hand.

At the same time, to all intents and purposes, he removed himself from the affairs of State by calling a referendum that was dear to his heart.

The Voice referendum, designed by a select group of Aboriginal people and the Prime Minister, proposed that Aboriginal Australians be given a preferred place in formulating the laws of Australia.

The referendum became the Prime Minister’s mission in office. He claimed he was unifying the nation when in reality, he was splitting it asunder like never before.

As the months past, his rhetoric became ever more shrill as the polls showed the nation was increasingly against his proposition.

The polls were right, 64 per cent of Australian voted against the referendum. Prime Minister Albanese was visibly shaken and despondent.

While Australia had been pre-occupied with denying the Prime Minister the promise he made to the Aboriginal people, migrants from around the world flooded into the country in extraordinary numbers.

MIGRANT NATION

The recent influx of about seven million (some say 10 million), predominantly young, illegal migrants into America has increased the population of that country by about 2.4 per cent.

State governments and many city councils are complaining bitterly about the structural and humanitarian problems the illegal migrants are causing. City facilities are under stress, crime is increasing, the resident populations are becoming agitated.

The recent influx of 500,000 predominantly young legal migrants into Australia has increased the population of Australia by about 2.0 per cent.

So far there have been no “official” complaints from the Labor States or local councils, nevertheless, this influx is straining an already stressed infrastructure.

Mr Albanese made a commitment on election night: “I can promise all Australians this, no matter how you voted today, the government I lead will respect every one of you every day.”

When he made that pledge, he must have known there were more than 122,000 homeless people in Australia.

He must have known there were about 57,000 vulnerable families waiting for a safe and secure social housing home; a home just like the one he proudly grew up in with his disability pensioner, single mother; Albanese constantly reminds us of his background.

What respect was he showing to the homeless and those waiting for a safe and secure home when he did nothing to stem the migrant tsunami that was flooding into Australia?

The Labor Government must have known house prices, already among the most expensive in the world, would continue to rise with more buyers in the market; the law of supply and demand cannot be ignored.

With median house prices ranging from $1.2m in Sydney to around $850k in Melbourne and Brisbane, the aspiration to own a house dies quickly with the young in Australia.

The new Minister for Housing, Julie Collins, must have been made aware there were virtually no rentals available anywhere in Australia for another 500k people on top of those already searching in vain.

Rental vacancy rates of one per cent were common, as were rental auctions, so where were the migrants going to live and did the new minister care? The answer must be no. To her and her Party boasting took precedence over the needs of Australians.

There are now, in 2024, reports of overcrowding in some suburbs of the capital cities; two and sometimes three families living in the one home. Seeking shift work so they can take it in turns to sleep and shower. Is this what we want in Australia?

There is no alternative. Those with the most money can pay the highest rents; three incomes are better than one. Three can afford what one can’t; so, the three displace the one and where does the one go?

Many migrants have poor English and subsequently families of the same language and ethnicity are tending to gather in the same area. Migrant ghettos contradict the aims of integration and assimilation both central to the principles, the very ethos of Australian migration.

DON’T GET SICK

The Federal Government is considering a new plan to ease pressures on the health care system. But some say it’s a long-term solution to an imminent crisis.

The Minister for Health & Aged Care Mark Butler spoke to then Today show host David Koch on August 16, 2022:

Koch: The gap fee for a standard consult with your doctor is now more than the Medicare rebate itself. Is that causing too many Aussies to clog up emergency departments and ring 000 to avoid it?

Minister: “It’s probably the most potent symbol, David, the first time in Medicare’s 40-year history that the gap fee that people pay out of their own pocket is more than the Medicare rebate itself.

“And it’s a symptom of a broader challenge that patients and doctors talk to me all through the last couple of years leading into the election, telling me it’s harder than ever to see a doctor.”

Recently I looked at the availability of a doctor’s appointment at two of the biggest medical practices in my regional hometown; between them they employ more than fifty doctors.

There were two appointments available on the Tuesday after a long weekend. One of the doctors had appointments available for a couple of days after that.

For all the other GPs there were no appointments for a week; many for two weeks, and for some, for a month.

There was a time when a bad cold and a sore throat was sufficient to see a doctor. I was at the emergency department at my local hospital the other day and I now know where kids are taken when they’re sick.

Is it any wonder there is ambulance ramping when emergency doctors are treating aches and pains, sore throats and kids with snotty noses?

DOCTOR SHORTAGE

An Australia Medical Association (AMA) report in 2022, “General Practice workforce: why the neglect must end”, suggests there will be a shortage of 10,600 GPs by 2031.

In Australia there are about 370 medical doctors per 100,000 people; an increase in our population of 500,000 means we need another 1850 doctors.

The yearly graduation of medical students in Australia is about 3700. The annual rate of retirement among medical practitioners in Australia is about four per cent.

There are about 105,300 medical practitioners in Australia at present; we are expected to lose about 4,200 every year to retirement; so, what on earth are we going to do to provide a doctor to meet the needs of another 500,000 people?

Just to stand still we need those doctors planning retirement to keep on working; and we need another 1850 doctors just to care for the new migrants and we need them now.

HOSPITAL CRISIS

In an AMA report “Hospitals in Crisis” published in October 2021: “Our hospitals are full – there simply aren’t enough hospital beds or enough doctors and nurses – and tragic stories of deaths, deterioration and delayed care are becoming increasingly commonplace.”

The nurse-to-patient ratio in Australia is about 12.3 nurses per 1000 people. To cater for another 500,000 people, we need another 6130 plus nurses. There are about 450,000 nurses in Australia at present; in 2022, 80,000 nurses retired and about 20,000 new nurses graduated.