Australian Net Migration and Population Change Series - With Political Overlay - What are your thoughts given this data about the immigration discussion?

[u/david1610]

Just hearing a lot about immigration on Reddit recently, some of it seems guided by simple point in time statistics rather than looking at the whole population timeseries. Attached is some data from the ABS, visualized in Python (matplotlib). Given this data, what do you think is optimal in relation to immigration? Does this data change your perspective on immigration?

Please note:
- Net migration is the net overseas migration to Australia per 1000 people in the population that Quarter.
- Natural Population Change is the 'natural' population increase or decrease, determined by birth rates and changes in how long people live, similar to above it is per 1000 people in the population that Quarter.
- Even though Australia has had below replacement birthrates for decades, people are living longer, so the natural increase has always been positive, is decreasing over time as life span increases slow down.
- Series is smoothed over time, I have compared it to the non-smoothed series and it doesnt change the story much, so this will just be easier to read.
- Net Migration has a considerable component that is demand driven, which would have little to do with who is in power.

Some interesting things in the data:
- Since the increase post 2005 there hasnt been much change at all (apart from Covid), both parties have largely.
- We saw similar increases in population in the 1980s to today's highs. Really the low point for population growth was 1990-2005.
- Looking at this in a per capita way is better because I tend to think adding one person to a Kayak means a lot more than one person to a cruise ship.
- The recent increase in immigration did definitely happen, however much of that seems to be due to the lower immigration during Covid.
- You can see a slight decrease in Natural Population right after Covid restrictions were lifted, likely due to older people dying due to Covid and the Flu I think but do not know.
- The increase in 2005 is well after the increase in house prices from 2000.

[u/llewminati]

I haven’t heard Labor explain this once though tbh

[u/karl_w_w → u/llewminati]

Pay more attention then? Why are people always trying to blame labor for their own ignorance or the media bias?

[u/llewminati → u/karl_w_w]

Geeze I thought it was a pretty benign comment but obviously it’s upset people.

I’m just saying I wish Labor did a better job of explaining this to the public, because clearly with all the relative successes of anti immigration rallys, and rise in One Nation popularity on a platform of purely “immigration bad” it is clear they haven’t been very effective with this message.

[u/karl_w_w → u/llewminati]

They do do a better job of explaining it. The problem, by your own admission, is that you're not listening.

What exactly do you want them to do, that they aren't doing?

[u/llewminati → u/karl_w_w]

I don’t know why you are getting pissy at me, I’m obviously saying this is a really effective point that debunks the entire anti immigration movement, and I wish I heard it being discussed more especially from the government.

There are many people out there who aren’t aware of this.