DemosAU has a new federal poll for Capital Brief that provides little encouragement for the contention that deposing Sussan Ley has improved the Coalition’s position. It records a 28% primary vote for One Nation that equals its best-ever result from last fortnight’s YouGov poll, marking a four-point increase on the last DemosAU poll a month ago. The Coalition remains at 21%, with Labor down a point to 29% and the Greens down one to 12%. A seat projection has Labor in the range of 76 to 85, One Nation from 43 to 54, and the Coalition from nine to 20.
Where Fox & Hedgehog gave Angus Taylor a slightly positive net personal rating, DemosAU tips the other way in finding him viewed positively by 24%, neutrally by 48% and negatively by 28%. The respective figures for Anthony Albanese are 29% (up two), 25% (down seven) and 46% (up five), while Pauline Hanson is at 37% (up two), 25% (steady) and 38% (down two). A three-way preferred prime minister result has Albanese at 37% (down two on last month), Taylor at 19% (three points higher than Sussan Ley recorded last month) and Hanson at 25% (down one).
The full report has fairly extensive breakdowns by demographics and vote at the 2025 election, plus questions on the salience of various issues and the best party to handle them. The poll was conducted last Monday to Friday from a sample of 1551. The pollster also had state voting intention results from Queensland yesterday, Western Australia today, and has another on the way for South Australia, probably later today (UPDATE: It appears this will be later this week). Results from the latter poll on upper house voting intention for the March 21 election were featured yesterday in InDaily. As if all that weren’t enough, we can also presumably expect the fortnightly Sky News Pulse poll from YouGov tomorrow.
Recent polls keep sending the same message to the Albanese government: get the overall migration rate down, including overseas students.
They must focus purely on reducing the overall numbers. There is absolutely no reason for Labor to incorporate any racism into its policy stance. In that regard, Albo’s attack on the so-called “ISIS brides” was a serious misstep IMO: it won’t win the support of any of the racists who are embracing One Nation, but it will probably drive more Labor voters into the arms of the Greens.
But the high influx of migrants since Albo took charge in 2022 is a problem that must be addressed right now. It ties into a sense among millennials and zoomers that they have no hope of ever buying a house anywhere near where they want to live.
Right now, Labor seems to be feeding a back channel line to the media (eg, Alan Kohler yesterday) that it wants to make some changes to the taxation of assets. Depending on what these changes might be, they might well be good policy. But, in terms of doing anything about the cost of housing in the short to medium term, they will be like farting in a hurricane.
Housing prices are rising because there is too much demand chasing too little supply. Fixing the supply side problem takes a long time, but the demand problem can be addressed right away by a temporary reduction in the annual migrant intake. And such a move might help inflation more generally as well.
There is a risk with increasing taxes on residential housing assets in a situation of chronic undersupply that the armchair economists in the media either don’t understand or choose not to talk about. And that is that all you will end up doing is to shift some of the pressure from homebuyers onto renters. This happened in Sydney to some extent during the 1985-87 period when the Hawke Government abolished negative gearing for rental housing, and the ever-louder screams from the Unsworth Government eventually led to Hawke and Keating reversing the policy.
(Of course it didn’t help Labor in NSW, because there were many other things wrong with the Unsworth Government, starting with the fact that Unsworth was the Premier rather than Brereton.)
Anyway, Albo, it’s time to take some stronger action re migrant numbers. The levers are all sitting there in front of you, it’s not going to be difficult. Big announcement, combined with some new measures of some sort about increasing housing supply. Away you go.
And the 5% deposit scheme for first homebuyers has lifted house prices. The same thing happened when the previous NSW govt introduced a first homebuyer cash scheme. House prices went up, almost immediately.
I know the numbers are what they are. But it is a stunning reversal for ALP.
ALP(government) and PHON (a rag tag bunch of rabble rousers with no vision to make lives for ordinary people, are almost on same PV. Unbelievable!!! Death rides the horse.
Fess: “And the 5% deposit scheme for first homebuyers has lifted house prices. The same thing happened when the previous NSW govt introduced a first homebuyer cash scheme. House prices went up, almost immediately.”
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Yep, throwing money at the demand side never achieves anything worthwhile.
The supply side is always going to be the main issue. As Mr Earlwood has rightly pointed out in several posts on here, Federal and State governments have dropped the ball on public housing construction over the past four decades or so. The problem can be traced back to the mid-1980s, when the Hawke Government started cutting back significantly on Federal funding for public housing. Then, early in Keating’s period as PM, a lot of the remaining Federal housing funding was shifted from public housing to rent assistance, with people on low incomes being encouraged to find their own housing in the private rental market.
The main culprit here was a very nice and well-intentioned man, Brian Howe, then Deputy PM and Minister for Health, Housing and other stuff. He didn’t like public housing, because he thought it trapped low income people in ghettos located a long way from where the jobs were. That’s not entirely untrue, but, as we have subsequently found, a house or unit in a ghetto is better than having nowhere to live at all.
meher baba,
You know what a better way to address the Housing Supply issue is?
The one announced by Peter Malinauskas. Allow those that are aging at home to downsize without having to pay a large amount of Stamp Duty. Houses are already built, in established areas with local amenities and near to family and friends for Millennials and Gen Z. You don’t have to follow ON down the plughole to the sewer. Definitely some nips and tucks to the Immigration system are needed, and I would especially deal with, once and for all, the one that the Coalition wanted to bring back if they had won the last federal election, of re-establishing ‘Training Colleges’ as a back door way for people to get into the country so that they could facilitate driving down wages for the rest of us who are already here. There also needs to be a stop put to overseas students who don’t finish their degrees at Uni on purpose and switch to another one so that they can stay in the country longer. Come in, do the degree you started, then go home. If you don’t finish it, then go home.
I also think there’s room for Australia to copy America’s ‘Einstein Card’, such that the best and brightest of the overseas student cohort do get offered Permanent Residency and eventually Citizenship. Family Reunion needs to be restricted in number and direct line.
I think that should trim the numbers right back. Without having to be a racist.
meher baba,
Again you fail to mention the Coalition’s sins wrt Housing. They are the ones who have had the aggressive policy to sell off the already built Social Housing, as the Queensland LNP government are still going to do.
Ven: “I know the numbers are what they are. But it is a stunning reversal for ALP.
ALP(government) and PHON (a rag tag bunch of rabble rousers with no vision to make lives for ordinary people, are almost on same PV. Unbelievable!!! Death rides the horse.”
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And a surprising proportion of the new PHON voters are younger people, especially younger males.
Why? Consistent with my long post above, I think many younger voters are feeling shut out of the home purchase market and, to some extent, out of good employment opportunities. And, with some cause, they are blaming the historically very high rates of migrant intake under the Albanese Government.
These young people look around for a political party which clearly stands for bringing fewer migrants into the country and PHON looks like the obvious choice to them. These voters aren’t necessarily racist at all, they are more concerned about their own self-interest.
Of course, there also seems to be an older group of voters who are drifting from the Coalition to the PHON, particularly based in rural and regional areas, who have more racist attitudes. Their position is somewhat paradoxical, as they live in communities in which businesses and employers are hugely enthusiastic about an influx of newly-arrived migrants. Barnaby Joyce embodies this paradox: he has joined PHON, and yet, not that long ago, he lobbied strongly for the government to grant permanent residence to the so-called “Biloela family.”
Dr Doolittle from the previous thread:
As for Hanson, except for the initial success in the 1998 Qld election she has always underperformed the polls. Her form of populist ignorance has steady support in Qld, an undrainable small reservoir of support in WA and rural NSW, but comparatively little support in Victoria, a key state federally.
This wise comment from Dr D. goes to the brazen signalling some do when it’s ‘only a poll’. So the support for ON goes up. Then when the election comes around other issues besides the ON talisman hove into view for voters. And the ON support goes down.
C@t: Both Labor and the Coalition have had schemes to sell off public housing over the years. Sometimes it’s a good thing, selling freestanding houses in high price suburbs to enable more apartments to be built elsewhere. On other occasions, it risks undermining the public housing system.
Anyway, whataboutism re the past sins of the Coalition isn’t going to do your mob much good if PHON are about to become the new opposition in Australia.
What Malinauskus proposes is ok, although a risk attaches to such schemes that they might be portrayed as trying to force old people out of their lifelong homes. But, in any event, it comes into the category of farting in a hurricane in terms of its likely impact on the housing market more generally.
If your interested in how the current war in Europe unfolded this is every interesting discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvHCGKKnfpE
Why? Consistent with my long post above, I think many younger voters are feeling shut out of the home purchase market and, to some extent, out of good employment opportunities. And, with some cause, they are blaming the historically very high rates of migrant intake under the Albanese Government.
No, meher baba. Most of them came in under the ATM Coalition governments to drive down wages. They have now established themselves, started businesses, brought their families in via Family Reunion, and employed them in their businesses. Just go to most petrol stations to see what I mean. Or to building sites to see who the Gyprockers are.
Which they have a right to do, of course. And wouldn’t you do the same if you could?
The people who have come to Australia under Labor are backpackers, overseas students, and those we need to fill the Skills shortages.
So, which gets me to the main point. Are you happy for the Building Trades people to be shut out, or the Aged Care and Disability Care Workers to be prevented from coming here so that the Amygdala of those who are indulging their race-adjacent negative views about immigration can be tickled?
How long will this reshaping of Australian politics last? Is it a blip or longer term change?
Labor sub 30, LNP combined just over 20, combined majors at 50, One Nation headed for 30+? The Greens holding their 12% or so. Others will be important given they will likely be very Tealish and similar now. Palmer about to kick off again, still pissed Pauline said no to the $10 million takeover?
Bring on some elections / by-elections to test these numbers
Alan Kohler was asked if rents would go up if the CGT discount is removed, he said they might and using other measures to combat that, I’m guessing he meant rent caps without saying it
100% we need to increase supply side measures and reduce demand side ones, the CGT discount and negative gearing both increase demand. Get short term rentals back into the long term market as well. State issues, but the federal government can play a role
The government needs to tell the story of migration, especially around the jobs migrants do. Plus around overseas students and tourism. All part of the picture and driving our GDP growth to a degree
Cut numbers too much and they’ll be explaining why we’re in recession
Affordable housing means lower property values that’s why it can’t happen. Try governing a democracy that has to vote on which 1/3 of voters gets to be fed as dinner to which other 1/3 of voters. And they need their dinner.
One nation were 17% a record for them just before Bondi and Joyce defection early Dec.Recent int rate increase also so now 28%.
Libs imploded also and here we are.
What’s killing labor apart from population is its spending.
It’s juicing the economy whilst housing/rent inflation is high thus 3.8% inflation.
Deficits for next 6 years says labor so they have no intention to stop spending which means they have to reduce population rapidly or interest rates increase.
Inflation stats out tomorrow and the reserve bank needs to increase interest rates again if core inflation does not have a 2 in front of it.
meher baba,
So, you’re saying Supply is the problem. Therefore, we need to allow Building Tradespeople in to fill the gaps. Also, as you would know from your state, Tasmania, there has been a pincer movement from the Liberals on one side who don’t want housing built to force the price up for their supporters, and The Greens, who don’t want Housing built to allow the environment to be preserved. Labor are the only party who have a policy which actually addresses Supply in a meaningful way. So as to overcome these hurdles.
c@t: “Family Reunion needs to be restricted in number and direct line.”
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There are political pressures underpinning the family reunion policy that most people don’t know about.
The history of post-WWII immigration has been that many people came to Australia looking for economic opportunities that were not available at home. Hence the initial large influx of Greeks, Italians, Germans and eastern Europeans. In more recent decades, economic conditions in most part of Europe (including Britain) are far better than they were in the 1940s and 1950s and people from those countries are far less interested in migrating here. So, increasingly, our migrants are coming from Asia and Africa.
But, within what might be called the “ethnic sector”, the European migrants and their descendants still wield quite a lot of power. And, understandably, the leaders of those communities would like to see a continuing stream of migrants from their countries into Australia: to eat at their restaurants, buy their products, read their community newspapers, etc. So they continually lobby the government to expand the family reunion criteria in the largely forlorn hope of getting more Greeks, Italians, Poles and etc. into the country.
This lobbying is often difficult for politicians to resist.
As tempting as it is to look back and say it was this government or that governments fault, most voters dont give a fig. They give an incoming government a year at best before fully moving all responsibility to the current government.
Fed Labor should start thinking about the polls. I said ON support was a blip, and I still do but I’m changing my mind to thinking it’ll last longer, the 2 up coming state elections and the resultant year or so in parliament should highlight how poorly ON will be as an electoral choice.
Cut numbers too much and they’ll be explaining why we’re in recession
Bingo!
The Skills shortages; why go to the expense of training your own population when brain-draining the Third World provides endless Skills for cheap.
Alan Kohler: “Alan Kohler was asked if rents would go up if the CGT discount is removed, he said they might and using other measures to combat that, I’m guessing he meant rent caps without saying it”
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With the inevitable consequence of massive shortages of rental housing.
There are no free lunches here. We need to increase the supply of housing. But we also need to think about a long-term population policy. Do we really want to be a country of 100 million people, of whom 25 million live in greater Sydney, 20 million in greater Melbourne and perhaps another 20 million in south-east Queensland?
People in US people know who Trump 2.0 was/is and UK people know who Farage is , but they still voted for them.
Likewise, Australian people know who Pauline Hanson is, they are still flocking to her.
It is as if goat believes the butcher to look after her. As I said death rides the horse.
c@t: “meher baba,
So, you’re saying Supply is the problem. Therefore, we need to allow Building Tradespeople in to fill the gaps. Also, as you would know from your state, Tasmania, there has been a pincer movement from the Liberals on one side who don’t want housing built to force the price up for their supporters, and The Greens, who don’t want Housing built to allow the environment to be preserved. Labor are the only party who have a policy which actually addresses Supply in a meaningful way. So as to overcome these hurdles.”
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I don’t know anything about the Liberals in Tassie opposing new housing construction. Do you have a source?
There might be some NIMBY action going on in some wealthier suburbs, but down here, a growing proportion of the residents of those suburbs are Greens.
. A seat projection has Labor in the range of 76 to 85, One Nation from 43 to 54, and the Coalition from nine to 20.
Have Denmos factored in everybody ( except maybe country party) putting ON last in their preferences .
I say bullshit poll.. ON will not make double figures
I told you the Malinauskas Stamp Duty Exemption for Downsizers was the way to free up Supply. The NSW Liberals have copied it:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/the-1950-housing-headline-that-is-still-relevant-in-nsw-76-years-later-20260223-p5o4ph.html
This article – a book review of Why Immigration Policy is Hard – may be of interest:
https://insidestory.org.au/rough-justice-peter-mares/
c@t: “No, meher baba. Most of them came in under the ATM Coalition governments to drive down wages…The people who have come to Australia under Labor are backpackers, overseas students, and those we need to fill the Skills shortages.”
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Lots of backpackers, overseas students and skilled migrants came in under the Coalition as well.
But the overall annual intake is too high. It jumped up under Kevin “Big Australia” Rudd, stayed high under ATM (except during COVID) and has remained high under Albo (albeit reduced by smidgeon over the last year or so).
It doesn’t matter where the migrants come from, or why they are here: they all need places to live. So housing prices keep going up, especially rents.
I don’t know anything about the Liberals in Tassie opposing new housing construction. Do you have a source?
I didn’t say actively opposing, but as you would know via federal Coalition government policy, and from what I heard anecdotally over the years about the Housing crisis in Tasmania, there was not an active Housing policy, not even a Housing Minister to encourage Supply. It was opposition to construction by neglect. Also, via policies which favoured investors over First Home Byers. We mustn’t forget the proliferation of Air BnBs over their time in government. It’s also an issue which needs to be addressed to free up Supply.
meher baba says:
Tuesday, February 24, 2026 at 7:09 am
Alan Kohler: “Alan Kohler was asked if rents would go up if the CGT discount is removed, he said they might and using other measures to combat that, I’m guessing he meant rent caps without saying it”
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With the inevitable consequence of massive shortages of rental housing.
There are no free lunches here. We need to increase the supply of housing. But we also need to think about a long-term population policy. Do we really want to be a country of 100 million people, of whom 25 million live in greater Sydney, 20 million in greater Melbourne and perhaps another 20 million in south-east Queensland?
________________
That is slightly exaggerated. Have you estimated how many years that would take? 🙂
Immigration rate has SFA to do with the situation Australia faces …
200 years of poor urban planning is the problem..
I don’t think ONP will have significant electoral success, but it shifts the Overton window. That is the true worry.
Anyway, I must away to do the DP. TTFN. 🙂
Oh yeah, one last thought. Overseas investors who buy Oz property to sock their money away in should be curtailed, in order to provide Supply for residents (and not just the kids of the O/s investors).
It’s true, the government does need to start pulling some levers.
Abolish stamp duty all together I say, it’s a stupid tax that increases the friction of changing homes to suit life’s circumstances and reduces liquidity in the housing market.
Building new homes takes time, but letting people right-size their housing situation will allow much more efficient use of the existing stock.
Introducing a land tax offsets the revenue from stamp duty, is a more predictable stream of revenue for the government (not reliant on volume of housing transactions in a given year), and nudges empty nesters to downsize without a big stamp duty tax disincentivising them.
On another note (and I’m not sure if this is at all an issue), heavy penalties for the owners of unoccupied properties should be in place – if it isn’t your PPOR and it isn’t being rented out, you should be taxed aggressively to do so or sell it to someone who will.
The Netherland does have a housing supply problem. It is many hundreds of thousands of dwellings short of what it needs. It has a much higher social housing supply than Australia. That said, housing costs are rising, this is blamed on people walking across the border that must be housed. This is feeding the significant shift of the Netherlands’ Overton window shifting to the far right. Hence Geert Wilders.
High migration rates, muslims/islamophobia, housing shortage, CoL surge, vanishing middle class jobs, culture wars being perceived to have been won by women and non hetero male genders, vanishing high paid working class jobs, social media saturated with lies, vanishing job security = Trump, Orban, Wilders, Le Pen, Farage.
Hanson? Rinse and repeat.
It was four years ago today…
“The Guardian view on the fourth anniversary of Putin’s war: Ukraine is exhausted, but not broken
Editorial
Despite relentless attrition at appalling human cost, the Kremlin has not achieved its goals. Maximum economic pressure can undermine its war aims”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/23/the-guardian-view-on-the-fourth-anniversary-of-vladimir-putins-war-ukraine-is-exhausted-but-not-broken-
I see that the fringe party supporters are taking solace from the decay in support for what used to be the two majors. It is the one thing that all fringe party supporters have in common.
They may want to think about what it is going to be like to have ON as the one of the two major parties after it has finished swallowing the Nats and Rump Liberals.
With most of the focus by political journalists this year on culture wars and leadershit you could be forgiven for thinking that the government had nothing on. In fact, reviews of the Energy Industry Job Plan, Gas and National Electricity Markets were completed last December and are awaiting a response. Sadly, few journalists would be aware of this.
The National Electricity Market (NEM) Review is of particular interest. The implementation roadmap proposed that the following elements of the Review be legislated by the end of this year:
In order for that to occur a mountain of work needs to take place to work out the details for each element and ensure the states are on board so they can be inserted into the National Electricity Law (through the SA parliament). The communique from the last Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council stated that a work program will be provided by February 2026. If there are any journalists out there interested in policy, maybe they could ask what’s happening.
Good call by Sloane re stamp duty exemptions for downsizing, hopefully Minns follows suit
Freeing up established housing makes a lot of sense, C@t is spot on. Plus a carrot not a stick approach
We need to encourage people to settle outside the biggest cities. High speed rail a step in the right direction although they should do various sections at the same time rather than just Newcastle to Sydney. Then connect them all up. That will get the end result faster although we’d need people to do the work
Why is Albo so keen to lead on former Prince Andrew? Looking for a distraction? Go the whole hog, bring on a republic
“Perpetrators, victims, and bystanders”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetrators,_victims,_and_bystanders
The perpetrators here are Russia, North Korea, Iran and China.
The victim here is Ukraine.
The bystanders here are …
And has anyone stepped up to form a fourth category?
Hungary is a: perpetrator? bystander?
“‘Political sabotage’: EU leaders accuse Hungary of undermining support for Ukraine
Viktor Orbán’s government blocks fresh economic measures against Russia on eve of war’s fourth anniversary”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/23/eu-leaders-accuse-hungary-sabotaging-support-ukraine
Fuck Orban.
There are arguments to be made about what proportion of the housing stock should be owned vs rented (and how concentrated in how few pairs of hands that ownership should be), but I think the most productive discussions lie in how we can encourage the most efficient use of the housing market.
Then the conversation inevitably moves to the building of new supply – in what locations, in what density and with what local amenity. I for one would love to see significantly more “large” apartments orientated towards families – 3 or 4 bedroom apartments with 1 to 2 living spaces, basically the size of older villas just without the backyard.
A lot of the 3 bedroom apartments I’ve seen have living spaces far too small, and feel more like a 2 bedroom apartment with an extra room tacked on.
“These voters aren’t necessarily racist at all, they are more concerned about their own self-interest”
But, by the same token, the racists do vote for One Nation.
This article has some interesting observations of Viennese housing:
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/palaces-for-the-people-in-vienna-are-not-so-far-fetched-but-do-australians-have-the-right-values-to-create-similar-homes/
Definitely a glut of polling lately, with a YouGov to come tonight, all telling a similar story though, a One Nation surge, sluggish Labor primary, LNP failing to recover and around 25% between the Greens and Others. I’ll say again I think the Others must look different now
Ideally everyone will put One Nation last and they won’t win any seats. See how that goes. There is definitely a push back against politics as usual at present
I’m hoping a big result for the Greens in the UK this week and in May leads the Greens here to change track a bit and go harder on the cost of living, it’s the number one issue
Enjoy your day folks
I don’t think the suggestion that the PHON results are a message to Labor to get overall migration down really holds water.
NEM is just the piece of grass the orange arsed bees are clinging on to (image for reference). There is no migration figure that would be low enough to get these people back to the fold, much like MAGA voters don’t actually care on a deep level about any of their temporary grievances (swamp, wall, emails, steal, dome, etc etc).
The voting behaviour is a result of structural and systemic issues that has seen the real living standards of working (and pensioned) people go backwards and wages stagnate (Australian wages are where they were 15 years ago with no serious growth projected), while people with family wealth are running away with it.
Until Liberal democracies start addressing the structural issues that cause inequality in a way that people feel, and doesn’t just show up on graphs, populist right wingers are being given a free ride.
Keep going, keep saying only racists vote One Nation. I can understand the need to take out frustrations over the ineptitude of albanese and labor in general.
Once again people are starting to wake up to how pathetic Labor are and especially Albanese who once again was caught out with his bare faced lie to the people. Waiting for what minority group will be next in line for albanese to stomp on because labor are way too weak to do anything substantial other then bully minorities.
Albanese will never die on a hill, because he is too scared to climb one. If he was a soldier in WW2 he would never storm a machine gun nest.
Griff: “That is slightly exaggerated. Have you estimated how many years that would take? ”
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It depends on what happens with government immigration policies. At the moment, governments use historically high migration rates as a means of countering declining birth rates and stagnant productivity levels. As many have said, high immigration rates are a sugar hit that deliver high rates of economic growth even when GDP per capita is relatively stable. And, as we all know, people who become addicted to sugar hits tend to need more and more to get the same effect as time goes by.
The Australian population is currently 27.5 million. 80 years ago it was around one-quarter of that amount. So in 80 years time, perhaps it will be four times that amount. 80 years isn’t all that long a time. And any suggestion that we can spread the population into the more “empty” parts of inland Australia is as stupid now as it was when Arthur Calwell was banging on about it in the 1940s.
Likewise, comparisons between the population per square metre in Australia and the Netherlands, as were provided above, are equally meaningless.
The sad truth is that, if we actually decided to try to settle tens of millions of people across the Australian inland, we would be unable to guarantee most of them a reliable supply of potable water. And we’d also have to stop much of our food production, meaning that Australia would move towards becoming net importer of food. We’d be even more reliant than we are now on the income we making from extracting minerals in northwest Australia. Thank goodness that, back in 1788, the Dutch didn’t insist upon their valid claims (to the extent that any colonial claims can be considered valid) to prior sovereignty of all of Australia west of the longitude of 135 degrees East!
Time to tax wealth. The Greedies hate fact that the Scandinavians do so well despite not being part of the post war Bretton Woods stitch up. Fuck the extractors.
Just as all decent Americans parroted their mantra “no sensible person could vote for Trump” we in Oz are doing the same thing.
These are dangerous times and we need to take the threat of Hanson seriously.
They don’t want her to run the country, they want her to blow the place up.
Our response needs to be from the ground up. We need to address housing and COL yesterday. If we ignore those issues (and others) we are headed down the American path.
Meher you make some well reasoned points but I feel you are falling into the trap of panicking about immigration. Numbers are coming down.
This is a nation of migrants. As Cat says above – cut too far and there will be labour supply problems.
The housing issue has been building for 30 years and is the result of many factors as some have written about above.
I agree re public housing. There needs to be a big investment in public housing where people can get 99 year leases or similar. Fund it out of cuts to CGT concessions. Where does the labour come from to build them? Yes, you guessed it – migration.
As I said in another thread the ALP cannot be complacent about the threat from both ON and a potentially resurgent LNP.
My hope is the May budget will include some big announcements to address some of these issues and to build on what the government is already doing in the housing front.
World News & Politics Patrol:
At least 73 people died in the attempt to capture a Mexican cartel leader and its violent aftermath: https://apnews.com/article/mexico-jalisco-cartel-mencho-sheinbaum-trump-226e50edc33f981d5d6509acc7021ae5
Peter Mandelson arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/feb/23/peter-mandelson-arrested-on-suspicion-of-misconduct-in-public-office
‘Narco-Submarine’ Carrying 4 Tons of Cocaine Captured by Mexico’s Navy: https://www.wired.com/story/narco-submarine-carrying-4-tons-of-cocaine-captured-by-mexicos-navy/
Iceland looks to fast-track vote on joining EU: https://www.politico.eu/article/iceland-fast-track-vote-eu-membership/
“Three or Four Are Gone”: Zelenskyy Hints Ukrainian Strikes Took Out Shahed Drone Infrastructure Inside Belarus: https://united24media.com/latest-news/three-or-four-are-gone-zelenskyy-hints-ukrainian-strikes-took-out-shahed-drone-infrastructure-inside-belarus-16170
Zelensky tells BBC Putin has started WW3 and must be stopped: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgj9p15y87o
EU says it will accept no increase in US tariffs after Supreme Court ruling: ‘a deal is a deal’: https://www.reuters.com/business/eu-says-it-will-accept-no-increase-us-tariffs-after-supreme-court-ruling-a-deal-2026-02-22/
US to stop collecting tariffs deemed illegal by Supreme Court on Tuesday: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-customs-agency-stop-collecting-tariffs-deemed-illegal-by-supreme-court-2026-02-23/
Ousted senior FBI official running for Congress in Maryland: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5751359-sundberg-fbi-running-congress-maryland/
The odds of Trump’s $2,000 tariff dividend checks are ‘now effectively zero: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/23/trumps-2000-tariff-dividend-checks-are-less-likely-experts-say.html
US Women’s Hockey Team Declines Trump’s State of the Union Invite: https://www.newsweek.com/state-union-2026-donald-trump-us-hockey-invitation-11568813
‘Very inappropriate’: FBI director Kash Patel faces backlash for partying with Team USA: https://www.nj.com/bergen/2026/02/very-inappropriate-fbi-director-kash-patel-faces-backlash-for-partying-with-team-usa.html
DNC finding: Biden’s Israel backing cost Harris votes for president: https://forward.com/fast-forward/807082/democrats-review-election-gaza-israel/
AOC Slams Republican Sen. Over Mockery Of Her Bartending Work: ‘Makes Me 1000x More Qualified To Govern On Behalf Of Working People’: https://www.latintimes.com/aoc-slams-republican-sen-over-mockery-her-bartending-work-makes-me-1000x-more-qualified-govern-594927
GOP goaded Jasmine Crockett into running for senate by promoting favorable polls: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/jasmine-crockett-republican-party-polls-senate-b2881774.html
US judge permanently blocks release of report on Trump documents case: https://www.reuters.com/world/us-judge-permanently-blocks-release-report-trump-documents-case-2026-02-23/
Kristi Noem Repeatedly Claimed ICE Deported a Cannibal. It Was “Completely Made Up.”: https://theintercept.com/2026/02/23/kristi-noem-ice-cannibal/
Gunman shot dead in Mar-a-Lago was ‘fixated on Epstein files’ and avid Trump supporter, friends say: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/austin-martin-mar-a-lago-suspect-b2925443.html