rba should put a sock in its mouth, page-24

I do not know where people get the figure for immigration being 177,000 pa. A fellow at work read out to me from the newspaper he was reading that last year the immigration level was 300,000. Immigration does not include the so called temp 457 worker visas, which are in addition. Immigration is about people who are coming in on the understanding of staying here premenantly. There are now about 80-100,000 temp visas being issued per year. Add to that all the overseas students doing course who will have the right to stay, with many of the courses being in trades such as hair dressing and cooking, so its not really skilled (although I would also question much of the stuff taught at Unis these days as being of questionable value).

The one figure that really clarfied to me what has been happening is what appeared in newspapers around September/October 2007. This indicated that at the time of the last census in mid 2006 Australia's population was around 19.9 million but at the time of the article the Australian Bureau of Statistics had estimated Australia's population as just having passed 21 million. Normally it takes about 4-5 years for Australia's population to increase by 1 million, but with the influx we are now doing it in about 15 or so months. Hence the new pressures on house prices over the last 12 months.

loki