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Polls might help you understand why Australian politicians do what they do on immigration. Only 28% of Australians want more refugees: http://www.sbs.com.au/n

by sien 10y ago

Polls might help you understand why Australian politicians do what they do on immigration. Only 28% of Australians want more refugees: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/05/17/most-australians-against-boosting-refugee-intake-despite-eu-crisis-poll http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/05/17/most-australia... A clear majority of Australians 69% (up 11%) support immigration (of 210,000 in 2013/14) remaining the same 37% (down 10%) or increasing 32% (up 21%) while 26% (down 14%) want immigration levels reduced and 5% (up 3%) can’t say. http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/6507-australian-immigration-population-october-2015-201510200401 http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/6507-australian-immigratio... Given that the intersection of the groups who want more refugees and lower immigration is likely to be small it's clear that what Australian politicians are doing is pretty close to what Australians, when polled, would like.

spangry 10y ago
Thanks for this. It's always useful to inject some hard data into these conversations. Looking at a more recent Roy Morgan poll (Oct 2016), the numbers appear to have changed a bit, with a few interesting inconsistencies. 1. 66% support asylum seeker immigration vs 25% oppose 2. 40% support immigration levels holding steady (up 3%), 21% support increasing immigration (down 11%), and 34% want immigration levels reduced (up 8%). 3. Confusingly, by 2046, 36% want a population under 30 million, 25% want 30-35m, and 23% want 35m or more. These numbers suggest to me that the respondents don't quite understand that if we maintain current immigration levels, we will very likely hit or exceed 35m population by 2046 (something which only 23% of respondents want). The ABS models 3 possible population scenarios (which use differing assumptions about fertility, life expectancy etc.). In the 'High' scenario, by 2046 our population will be 39.7m. In the 'Med' scenario, it will be 36m. In the 'Low' scenario, 33m. Source with assumptions and permutations: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3222.0main+features42012%20(base)%20to%202101 http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3222.0main+fe... RM Poll: http://www.roymorgan.com.au/findings/7017-australian-views-on-immigration-population-october-2016-201610241910 http://www.roymorgan.com.au/findings/7017-australian-views-o...
flukus 10y ago
Worth remembering is that Howard's magic stroke was to confuse the issue between refugees and immigration. A lot of people were angry we had 300k "boat people" a year, but never realised it was a handful of boat people and 290k legal immigrants. I despise the man but it was a political master stroke.
- spangry 10y ago
  100% agreed. It was a stroke of Machiavellian genius (or 'rat cunning', as others might put it). He managed to sell us down the river with nary a peep of resistance. At the time it seemed that most were actually cheering him on.

by sien 10y ago

spangry 10y ago

Thanks for this. It's always useful to inject some hard data into these conversations. Looking at a more recent Roy Morgan poll (Oct 2016), the numbers appear to have changed a bit, with a few interesting inconsistencies. 1. 66% support asylum seeker immigration vs 25% oppose 2. 40% support immigration levels holding steady (up 3%), 21% support increasing immigration (down 11%), and 34% want immigration levels reduced (up 8%). 3. Confusingly, by 2046, 36% want a population under 30 million, 25% want 30-35m, and 23% want 35m or more. These numbers suggest to me that the respondents don't quite understand that if we maintain current immigration levels, we will very likely hit or exceed 35m population by 2046 (something which only 23% of respondents want). The ABS models 3 possible population scenarios (which use differing assumptions about fertility, life expectancy etc.). In the 'High' scenario, by 2046 our population will be 39.7m. In the 'Med' scenario, it will be 36m. In the 'Low' scenario, 33m. Source with assumptions and permutations: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3222.0main+features42012%20(base)%20to%202101 http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3222.0main+fe... RM Poll: http://www.roymorgan.com.au/findings/7017-australian-views-on-immigration-population-october-2016-201610241910 http://www.roymorgan.com.au/findings/7017-australian-views-o...

flukus 10y ago

Worth remembering is that Howard's magic stroke was to confuse the issue between refugees and immigration. A lot of people were angry we had 300k "boat people" a year, but never realised it was a handful of boat people and 290k legal immigrants. I despise the man but it was a political master stroke.

spangry 10y ago
100% agreed. It was a stroke of Machiavellian genius (or 'rat cunning', as others might put it). He managed to sell us down the river with nary a peep of resistance. At the time it seemed that most were actually cheering him on.