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In Australia, racist violence is nothing new. But emboldened neo-Nazis form a frightening new spectre (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/australia@aussie.zone
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[–] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

Some people I know who supported the march do so because they're upset at the upcoming spare/unused bedroom tax, which aims to bring more homes on the market to lower prices. They don't care about housing people, they care about profit.

I'm also not convinced cutting immigration would help at all when it would only discourage construction, which is already below what's needed to support birthrate + people moving in from rural areas. Immigration isn't the cause of the crisis, so cutting it isn't the solution.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    Australia built 180,000 homes in 2024

    Australia's immigration numbers were around 500,000 over the same period.

    But no, that totally doesn't have any negative impact on housing affordability. /s

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    That's 500,000 coming in via immigration. This includes returning citizens. What is the number that left Australia during the same period? The data is available at the same location. You need to subtract one from the other and then look at that number and how it has changed over the last decade.

    Fwiw, I do think we should cut immigration significantly, except for work visas for those sponsored for residential construction roles. I do agree that immigration is being mishandled right now. I just want you to look at the right numbers, as right now the shit you say dramatically weakens your arguments.

    • Those were neo-nazis at the protests, not government plants
    • The cost of living is fucked
    • The people organizing those protests don't give a fuck about the cost of living
    • Housing is fucked
    • Immigration numbers are actually down significantly under the current government
    • The cause of the housing crisis isn't immigration
    • Immigration policy is an issue right now and should be altered to help with the housing crisis

    These can all be true at the same time. Your argument will be stronger if it is backed by facts.

    Fyi, the real cause of the housing crisis is the CGT discounts brought in by the Howard government. That is what started the obscene increase in house prices, and it just keeps getting worse.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (4 children)

    You seem to be under the impression that we will just magically build and build if people are gone, but that's not realistic. My point was that reducing immigration would significantly cut the number of houses built under the current housing market. We may be building too few homes now, but I doubt much at all will be built after cutting immigration either.

    The problem is not that we have a housing market that's too big, it's that we have a broken market. Housing entering the market in this country may be insufficient when demand is high, but it's straight up not entering the market where demand is low, and housing prices are higher than ever everywhere. We need to figure out why the market is broken and fix that if we even want so see housing prices stabilise for an extended period, let alone fall. Reducing immigration is a distraction at best.

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  • [–] -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

    The number of people coming in to the country is FAR exceeding our ability to build. The first thing we need to do is reduce our intake (reduce demand) so we can catch up. I'm not saying we need to stop ALL immigration, just that right now, reducing immigration is one of the few levers we have to help alleviate the crisis. Then we can talk about removing Negative Gearing and Capital Gains Tax Concessions, maybe even put some limits on property investing.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    What would you say are limiting factors on our ability to build then, if you think reducing immigration won't significantly reduce housing construction?

    Why do you say immigration a lever to pull but not the factors limiting construction?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (1 child)

    The limiting factor is government red-tape. It costs a lot of money and can take years just to get the approvals to start building.

    Not to mention our whole tax system is geared to favor the rich. (Thanks Howard!)

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