Allegra Spender, the Teal independent for Sydney’s wealthy Wentworth electorate, published two opinion pieces last year (here and here) calling on the Albanese Government to lift net overseas migration (NOM).
“In Wentworth, migration is a priority”, Spender said. “That means providing more flexibility for businesses to bring in the people they need“.
“It means providing a permanent residence pathway for all those on Temporary Skills Shortage and Temporary Graduate visas”.
“We need to deliver a campaign and a policy-set that promotes Australia as the destination of choice for temporary migrants”.
Spender then told Sky News last week that the current record level of NOM is appropriate and that Australia’s housing crisis has instead been caused by decades of political “inaction and failure”:
“A couple of months ago we had the lowest housing approval for a number of years. And this is a time where increasing supplies absolutely critical”.
“But frankly housing and the problems with housing are really separate”.
“The issue really here is actually sort of zoning and making sure that we’re really focused on rebuilding housing”.
Allegra Spender tweeted the federal government over the weekend, pushing it to make state funding contingent on them relaxing zoning and planning “so we can start to find out way out of this housing nightmare”:
The next chart shows that Australia’s housing crisis has not been caused by an inability to build homes:
Australia massively increased the number of homes built last decade.
The problem is that Australia’s population growth grew even faster after the federal government more than doubled NOM from 2004:
Therefore, housing demand via immigration swamped population growth – a situation that will only worsen now that the Albanese government has lifted immigration to fresh highs.
The May federal budget projected that Australia’s population would increase by a record 2.18 million people over the five years to 2026-27, driven by 1.5 NOM over the same period.
In turn, Australia’s population will grow by the equivalent of a Perth in only five years, with an Adelaide’ worth of people arriving purely via NOM.
Hilariously, at the same time as Spender is pumping record levels of immigration while complaining about a “lack of supply”, the Parliamentary Register of Member Interests shows that she and her spouse are loaded to the gills with properties:
Allegra Spender owns five properties.
As you can see, Spender’s principal place of residence is in the swank Darling Point, Sydney. She also owns two investment properties in Great Mackerel Beach NSW, as well as another in posh Woollahra, Sydney.
Her spouse owns an additional investment property in Cambridgeshire, UK.
Thus, pumping record levels of immigration is great for Spender’s property portfolio and wealth.
I noted on Tuesday that Spender’s profile lauds the benefits of living in Sydney’s posh inner east, close to amenities, and walking the beach from Bondi to Bronte:
“My Dad’s family has been in Wentworth for generations and growing up here was incredible – swimming in the ocean, doing the Bondi to Bronte walk, cycling around Centennial Park, going to the local restaurants and cafes – and all at the doorstep of the inner city”.
“That’s why I am raising my kids here and am so passionate that we give our kids the quality of life and opportunities that I had”.
Given Allegra Spender and her Wentworth constituents are such enthusiastic supporters of mass immigration, how about we stuff the new arrivals in high-rise apartment blocks stretching from Bondi to Bronte?
How about it Allegra? It’s what you and your members want, isn’t it?
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