QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Senator WHITTEN (Western Australia) (15:38): I move: That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for the Environment and Water (Senator Watt) to a question without notice I asked today relating to migration. Apologies, Minister Watt, I'll use fewer numbers next time. I know percentages can be hard.
Labor's immigration plan, if you can call it that, is to aim for twice the average immigration rate of other developed nations, and this is their version of a cut. According to the latest available data from 2024-25, Australia has been adding 1.0 per cent to its population each year. That's over four times the rate of the UK, France, New Zealand or Germany.
It's nine times the rate of the US. We can't even be compared to Canada, because they are running negative migration—the same negative net migration One Nation will deliver over three years. While we get Australia's immigration system under control, Labor will sit across the chamber and screech about the doom that this will bring to the economy.
What is truly dooming the economy is the Labor government. Whilst running negative migration, Canada has massively outperformed Australia on per capita GDP. Australia's has gone backwards since Canada started cutting immigration, while Canada's has jumped 1.3 per cent.
Canadians are benefiting from massive cuts to migration. They are more productive per person. This Labor government hates talking about the metrics that matter.
They hate talking about 'per capita' because they know that their policies are smashing everyday Australians. They know that Australians are getting poorer under their watch and standards of living are sliding backwards. Even so, they want to add a million more people over four years—that's if they hit their target, for once, which they won't.
While everyday Australians get poorer, while rents skyrocket and while inflation continues to bite, this Labor government pours more people in so they can say, 'The economy is growing.' What good is avoiding a technical recession from contracting headline GDP if people can't afford their groceries, if they can't get a roof over their heads? This government has killed the economy.
They've become addicted to mass immigration to mask their incompetence. They continue to run at over four times the rate of comparable countries because, if they stop now, the economic vandalism will be laid bare. Labor are in damage control and are incapable of admitting their mistakes.
They won't change. They can't change. One Nation has a plan that puts the prosperity of Australians first.
Question agreed to.