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Friday, June 14, 2024

Mike's Minute: Hopefully we don't follow Australia re immigration


$211 billion. That's a lot of money.

It is what it will cost Australia in lost productivity and revenue as a result of their Government panicking over reaction to the mass arrival of people via immigration.

Such was the panic, they started capping numbers. In capping numbers, they appeared to have made a mess of it.

If you follow Australian politics they make a mess of a lot of stuff, but that’s another story and one to watch later this year if they go to the polls and the Albanese Government turns out to be a one-term.

But by capping numbers they have turned immigration into a political game, not a business one.

You need immigration for skills and labour. By not meeting labour demand you curtail your growth.

It is an open question as to whether we are doing the same.

The flood gates were opened, way too late, and then because it was way too late the panic ensued and we let in all sorts of people, some of whom we wanted, or needed, but many of whom we didn’t.

It's the same reaction here - upset. There is a group it seems in all societies who are edgy about people arriving in their country. Politicians read that and react.

The Hays NZ recruitment survey out this week suggested skills gaps were still an issue here. In fact, 25% of employers said it was worse now than it has been, which is hard to fathom.

But it is nevertheless a reality and hands on deck is a very direct link to growth and I doubt anyone disputes we need growth right now.

Another question for us that Australia doesn’t appear to grapple with is around demand. Do people actually still want to come here? The truly talented and skilled have a world of choice. Are we still on their list?

Anyway, in Australia the price of playing politics is $211 billion.

So on one hand the Prime Minister keeps the punter happy who doesn’t like immigration, but on the other hand business is screaming for staff as they watch the bills mount for things they can't do.

This is where leadership comes in. Real leadership is about making the right decision, not always the popular decision.

Real leadership is about hanging tough when the screamers and moaners are at their loudest

At $211 billion ol' Albanese doesn’t look like he's the goods.

Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.

8 comments:

Reggie said...

Wrong Mike. Growth for growth sake is not the right approach. Growth through immigration is easy but not necessarily beneficial. We need growth that delivers a net real benefit to New Zealanders. In the 7 years to 2020 the net migration gain was a huge 480,000 people. GDP per head fell. So what was the benefit to New Zealanders? None! In fact there was a huge disadvantage because of the overloading of our infrastructure. Overloaded schools, roads blocked, hospitals full…all of which need to be rectified at a cost.

Maybe, before resorting to the apparent easy option of immigration, we should make better use of our existing population. We’ve got something close to 400,000 people of working age on benefits. Imagine if half of these joined the workforce! Huge reduction in cost (200,000 x $25,000 = $5billion!) and upturn in output.

Gaynor said...

We lack skills because we have a disaster of an education system that is more interested in social engineering like racial radicalism, transgender garbage, alarmist environmentalism etc, instead of concentrating on the basics and STEM subjects. Also having an education system that actually discourages a work ethic, discipline, morality combined with ineffective methods of teaching. The consequences of this is us having one of the longest tails of underachievement in the developed world with a large underclass who depend on welfare.

Actually what else could you expect with an obsession on a child centered, child led ideology infused with Progressivism and Marxism which produces mentally unwell children who feel entitled rather than responsible.

Professional people consider whether a country has a good education system as a factor in whether they will come here or not. The bullying in our schools I believe is the result of a lack of morality and lack of academic learning is off putting.

TJS said...

He's an hysterical muppet.

Anonymous said...

Minister Stanford must understand the gravity of her 2 related portfolios - Education and Immigration.

CXH said...

'Real leadership is about hanging tough when the screamers and moaners are at their loudest.'

Unless those screaming and moaning are business owners demanding a continual flow of cheap labour. All so they don't have to invest in ways to make existing staff more productive.

Then, standing up to them is called other names, leadership not being one of them. Perhaps Mike could ask the NZ Initiative to write his bleating for him. Oh wait, it sounds like they already do on immigration.

I.C. Clairly said...

Hosking is completely out to lunch on this issue. Skills shortages? Perhaps we have skills shortages because the huge population increase due to immigration mean we can't keep up? It's a vicious circle, and the purported solution to mass immigration (i.e. even more immigration) leads to further skills shortages.

Then again the "skills shortages" argument is largely specious. There's a reason why Indian Uber drivers, bus drivers supermarket checkout operators have become stereotypes because, like all stereotypes, they have a basis in reality. Some immigrants are skilled, or even highly skilled, but the majority (including the elderly parents and grandparents they bring in) are not skilled at all.

When the "skills shortages" argument is shown to be false, the "New Zealand is a land of opportunities for the world's poor" argument often comes along as a substitute. Well, good for the world's poor: what about the people of New Zealand who have to deal with the crowding, the lower wages, the higher house prices etc. that comes with the huge influx, top say nothing of the huge and irreversible demographic changes.

And there's the rub: putting aside the obvious anti-White hatred that also drive mass immigration into Western lands, the logic of capitalism is that it requires an endless stream of new people to keep consumption and asset prices up. Mike probably wants the prices of his house(s) to go up, so he can sit in his leafy suburb surrounded by other White people (mostly) and tell us all that we need the third world influx to continue because of muh GDP.

anonTeslaOwner said...

Mike is way off base here. NZ has prioritised unskilled immigration over skilled for the past decade or more. When you check what the skilled migrant categories are, you find stuff like Chef, Bus Driver etc - not skilled fields at all. Even allowing for that, immigration has filled our country with a mix of skills, idiots, grifters, immigration scan artists, and dole bludgers, and caused untold problems with infrastructure. Recent research in the EU has shown that unless rigorous selection criteria are used, immigration is a net drain on the economy and will cost more than it will return through the new workers.
What a joke, and all to keep wages low and neoliberal business owners happy. We need to change, and cut this ponzi scheme off.

Anonymous said...

Skills shortage? Nail. Lots of people are learning maori and kapi haka and how to exploit colonialism.

But if NZ reverts to being a pre colonial society then it will become self sufficient again. Maori wisdom and the maori way will prevail and non maori will take their true place as slaves.

So what's the issue?