60 Minutes, Immigration and IPs

[agent007]

A section of last Sunday’s 60 minutes program was dedicated to the number of independent workers (worldwide) arriving to Australia on a yearly base. It was mentioned that in 10 years time the figure would be around 1,000,000 of them.

Can you imaging the demand and pressure on the housing market?. One thing that the program did for me is to reassure me that what we are doing is the right thing to do.

In my opinion, the whole immigration topic was presented in a very negative way. Kind of, they are taking all of our jobs, the sky is falling, etc… However, as an IP investor (and we’re the minority), I realized that the size of the task and responsibility put on our shoulders is not a trivial one. We’d have to work harder/smarter and pull together as a team in order to provide first world and affordable accommodation to our new tenants, while at the same time providing indirect jobs to the community as well as generating multiple streams of TAX revenue to the government coffers.

I can’t understand why a TV program (I consider to be serious), presents a very narrow and single-minded opinion of a very complex and polyfacetic issue . No word was mentioned that Australian population is aging; no word on the fact that boomers are retiring and that the local X & Y generations are not big enough to support them. I order to make the Australian economy more robust, the size of its internal market must grow. Who cares whether the growth is due to natural growth or imported growth as long as it growth?

Happy investing,

James.

 

[Barracuda]

The story reminded me of that Southpark episode with immigrants from the future and teh rednecks catchcry "Thur tken our joobs!"

I'm not an employer, but I know that I too would get jack of advertising jobs in Australia and getting little to know interest. When the job needs to be done, good on them for finding someone who's willing to do it. Further, I'd love to see a follow-up story on how many took up the employer's offer to employ any Australian who was capable and willing to do the job.

I was concerned over the different treatment fo European and SEA / Pacific job seekers.

I'm not sure that there was a particular area / region where these roles / shortages were - I would imagine that they'd be all over the place. If you could identify a specific region, I imagine that something similar to student accomodation would suit these workers ideally.

Cheers, Barracuda

 

[Rixter]

IMHO its typical commercial TV station journalism. The programs primarily to sell advertisement time slots. What better better way to get people in front of the "idiot" box (and theres a reason behind that name) than to provide them something controversial to ponder

 

[gooram]

IMHO its typical commercial TV station journalism. The programs primarily to sell advertisement time slots. What better better way to get people in front of the "idiot" box (and theres a reason behind that name) than to provide them something controversial to ponder

Couldn't agree more... it's today tonight or a current affair with a bigger budget and an extra half an hour. Plus a week to gather stories so they don't have to rehash the same old material...

 

[alexlee]

I just hope people don't fall for the scaremongering and become anti-immigration. Australia's population is aging. To balance the demographics and balance the skills pool, we need young (or young families) migrants with skills from overseas. We should concentrate on skilled immigration and not just indiscriminate immigration. The US concentrated on (in effect) low skilled immigration and that's why they're having problems now. They're ending up with an aging population and a new, young, migrant population that's less skilled and will have to be taxed heavily to sustain the older generation's pensions, etc.

We also need to lure all the aussies who have gone overseas back. It's ridiculous how many aussies and kiwis are in London, for example. You can't walk along the street without hearing an aussie accent. If you can lure all of those people back when they're about 30 (after a few years of working and saving overseas), they'd inject an incredible amount of skills and money (not to mention kids!) back into the country.
Alex

 

[WildDog]

Scaremongering tatics to grab viewers attention.
I believe if you work hard there will always be a job for you.

Why do they take in migrants? not just cheap labours but these guys are willing to work hard, put up with unpleasent work and try to build a better future for their family.

They know what is at stake and they appreciate the chance given to them and willing to put in the hard yards so some day their kids or themselves will have a better future.

We want to be a productive country and not a hand out country to lazy workers.

I work odds job in my life but I put up with it and I do what I am told and be a productive employee and earn my keep.

 

[mit]

Surprising (or not) they didn't mention the lack of skills training in Australia that has led to this point.

MIT

 

[lizzie]

if there were aussie able, or prepared, to do these jobs then their would be no employing overseas ... so yes ... scaremongering as they are not taking away jobs from aussies, they are filling a vital gap.

i wonder how many australians would be prepared to only see their family once a year, for years on end, for the sake of giving them a better future?

besides - asides from the original land-owners we are all immigrants from sometime over the last 200 years. and, at the time, despised immigrants too - irish, greek, italian, pommy, asian, middle eastern ...

 

[shelldrake]

People are a nations greatest asset. we need more people to play with the big boys.
as for work, theres plenty around where i am. twice i've looked for a new job, both times i've started the next day, very low unemployment in my area if you're willing to work.
as for the OP's original comment about a greater demand for property, hadn't thought about it but thats a good point.

 

[DCA]

Can you imaging the demand and pressure on the housing market?. One thing that the program did for me is to reassure me that what we are doing is the right thing to do.

James.

I dont think it would change that much, you look at the US economy they have heap of migrants come in each year and probably close to the figure they mentioned but they still have similar cycle to us, boom, slow down, recession etc...

Dont forget we are having less babies so the migrants just going to fill the baby gap, so population wise I dont think we can grow that fast.

 

[young_gun]

I saw this segment on 60 minutes , althought they did present a modest view of support for working immigration they did fail to mention some of the benefits such as balancing out the ageing population ect ect.

I think this can either go boths ways , it can easily be a win win situation for australian residents, employers and immigrants or it can be disatarious for Australian reidents. If the Australian government does decide to increase the skilled workers immigration in Australia I think it needs to do so under strict guidelines as not to saturate the market with workers otherwise it will start to undercut wages.

The hard facts are that their a number of jobs that Australians just wont do. It makes sence to import skilled migrants who are willing and infact happy to do these jobs. I also think the government should also try and import workers from all over the world and not just Asia, to continue to keep Australian a culturally diverse nation.

 

[Kingbrown]

The story reminded me of that Southpark episode with immigrants from the future and teh rednecks catchcry "Thur tken our joobs!"

haha so true.

As usual, South Park has a more realistic perspective on life than 60 minutes.

More educational as well.

 

[agent007]

If what is said in bellow threat happens:

http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25955&highlight=recession

and the 1,000,000 new inhabitants come here then, rents are going to be very high. Otherwise, we should see some strong capital growth.

Cheers,

James.

 

[natmarie73]

Skilled immigration has pros and cons and I am all for it. However there needs to be enough checks and balances to ensure our youth have the same opportunities to learn a trade and get skilled up as previous generations have.

Merely letting lazy employers employ migrant workers to fill immediate vacancies without making any efforts to provide apprenticeships or training to local workers to fill future vacancies is not beneficial to Australia in the long run. There dosn't seem to be any advantage in paying workers to come here and paying our young people to sit on the dole because they can't get jobs.

I'm not a government beaurocrat though, so what would I know.

 

[Barracuda]

Merely letting lazy employers employ migrant workers to fill immediate vacancies without making any efforts to provide apprenticeships or training to local workers to fill future vacancies is not beneficial to Australia in the long run. There dosn't seem to be any advantage in paying workers to come here and paying our young people to sit on the dole because they can't get jobs.

The impression I had was that these are anything but lazy employers - the issue was lazy "workers". They had tried to get locals, with little success. They provided an open offer to local workers. It takes them alot of effort to get OS workers, including managing selection, sponsorship etc. The choice between getting OS workers or closing the business due to lack of interest is a real issue for these employers.

Don't confuse "can't get jobs" with "won't get jobs".

Cheers, Barracuda

 

[natmarie73]

Sorry barracuda, I wasn't clear.

I was not referring to the employers specifically interviewed on 60 minutes, but to employers in general. There are employers out there who choose not to offer any training or apprenticeships to local workers for whatever reason -usually cost cutting. They want the benefits of having ready workers now, but will not invest in creating job ready workers for the future.

There are lazy workers though, I agree, and our over generous welfare system is at fault here.

 

[Panic]

If what is said in bellow threat happens:

http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25955&highlight=recession

and the 1,000,000 new inhabitants come here then, rents are going to be very high. Otherwise, we should see some strong capital growth.

Cheers,

James.

Not really!
Think from an immigrants point of view. Why would someone immigrate to AU? The obvious answer is better life.
One of the main dreams of immigrants is to own a home, mainly because they have not been able to do it in their native country. Another reason is to make money.
If property keeps on being so unaffordable and the pay in your pocket is not so attractive due to over-taxing, I cant see many new immigrants settling in OZ. They may come, work for few years, realize this it not what they hoped for and move on... probably to Canada.
The comment about US having more immigrants then any other country is so true, and look at US property. For so many years it has not moved any. It is only the last few years that the global asset inflation caught up in US too.

Bottom line is, dont get too excited about CG or higher rents due to increased immigration.

Thx
V

 

[agent007]

Hi Panic,

Some comments:

If property keeps on being so unaffordable and the pay in your pocket is not so attractive due to over-taxing, I cant see many new immigrants settling in OZ.

Well, the fact is that there are more than 100,000 coming into the country ever year. Even if some of them leave, the number that remians still very high and that's how the forcast the 1,000,000 in 10 years from now.
Whether they are renting or not, these people has to leave somewhere and that's why I think that either rents go up (since we aren't building that much due to current property cycle), or population presure (demand), eventually will trigger CG.

They may come, work for few years, realize this it not what they hoped for and move on... probably to Canada.

Canada is not necessary a better option and even if it was, Canada along can't accept all of them. The other point is that even if Australia is not what they hoped for, it may still be much better of what they left behind.

The comment about US having more immigrants then any other country is so true, and look at US property.For so many years it has not moved any. It is only the last few years that the global asset inflation caught up in US too.

The economy of USA is much diverse and bigger than the AUS one. Also, it is my understanding that those areas that were not "moving" were showing + cash flow properties (That's what Robert K talks about I think).

Regards,

James.