The skilled worker. More precious than gold, dear reader.
And like an influx of gold, skilled workers and a rich pattern of migration have sustained Australian prosperity since the 1950s more or less. In turn, our stability as a nation and our rich civic life lean heavily on this prosperity.
From the 1950s on, and notwithstanding changes in family fertility, new workers have added to national productivity and expanded government tax bases without eroding working conditions.
This multi-decade boost to our socio-economic wellbeing is not lost on the Albanese Government. In recognising it, the new government has boosted our permanent migration program to 195,000 per year up from 160,000.
The fact remains that the calendar years 2025 and 2026 are only forecast to bring in net overseas migration of 235,000 per year. This is less than the GFC ‘Big Australia’ surge which saw successive years of 277,000 and 300,000 and the three significant years before the pandemic where NOM ranged from 238,000 to 263,000.
And yet, if we get the planning right, this will sustain us through the global challenges of the next few years and might even help us surprise on the upside.
It is a big ‘if’ though. Federal, state and local governments have blameshifted their way through 40 years of undersupply, high housing taxes and poor/slow planning for both at-market and social housing.
Maybe the Albanese Government’s new National Housing Accord will help us turn the corner. If this is to be the inflection point, we will have to help the government and we will have to keep the spotlight on state and local governments to do their part.
We will need to polish these great Australian cities of ours. Make them the well-planned global magnets of talent attraction that a skilled worker will want to make their home in.
Otherwise, the extraordinary prosperity engine that is post-war Australia will start to gather rust.
