Open-borders Australia learns nothing from Carney visit

Australia endures historic highs in mass migration and historic lows in housing affordability. But the elite narrative is mass migration never happened, or even if it did, it can't be well controlled, and it has little effect on housing, nor is it the business of voters.

Defying these fairy stories, Canada has slashed net-migration, inducing population growth near zero for year 2025 (the bold target was negative 0.2%). Visibly, this has reduced asking rents.

Albanese Australia is currently the world outlier, as a wealthy Western nation persisting with decades of over-migration, up to and exceeding 1% of population per annum. Among the Anglosphere or Five Eyes nations, Australia's the only one that hasn't eased the rental/housing pain by curbing mass (including poorly vetted and illegal) immigration.

With Iran war, our proudly renewable-energy "net zero" government sweats over necessary bulk-oil imports, and soaring fuel prices. Thus far, there's no cautionary talk of pausing the unnecessary bulk-migration imports, up to 1,500 persons daily or near 1,000 in net-migration terms. There should be. More so, if you take a pessimistic view of Epic Fury's outcomes.

Aussie world-exceptionalism invokes 101 silly reasons, why the Canadian and Anglosphere experience can't be emulated, isn't even discussed. With or without Trump's Iran strike, it was a given, Carney's visit wouldn't change this.

What Canada did

How surprising was Canada's U-turn. For nigh on a decade, Justin Trudeau had pummelled his nation, with historic immigration highs and housing grief. Population growth briefly hit 3% per annum, more the metric of an African nation, not a world top 10 economy.

Trudeau's unpopular Liberal party faced a drubbing in the upcoming federal election. But late 2024, he turned on a dime.

His opponent promised to be even tougher on immigration. That unravelled, with the eminently electable Carney replacing Trudeau, and anti-Trump sentiment doing the rest. Similar sentiment boosted Albanese, at Election 2025.

Says Canada, 2026 will see another large reduction in its population of temporary residents, thus a second consecutive year of little or no population growth.

By 2027, Canada has estimated its population growth rate might reset, a bit below 1%. Virtually all this growth would be driven by immigration. Why even do that? Might that not sour housing affordability again?

Mind you, even 1% population growth is too "low" for Australian Treasury. No matter who was in government, the mandarins would resist that.

Carney visits Australia

Trudeau and Albanese had a bromance, the former praising the latter's "immense" climate courage, whatever that means. "Growing up in public housing", Anthony generates "hope and inspiration". You won't get that level of effusion from Carney.