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Measures are being taken here already to lower the number of foreign students being accepted.
Housing is a very complex issue, approvals are taking too long but on the other hand there are too many high rise buildings being built with defects. Then there is the issue that many older apartment blocks have problems with concrete cancer. Although they can usually be repaired in a straightforward manner, getting the corporate bodies to agree is often not easy. I know as we are involved in one!
But I am not as pessimistic as some others who comment here. Sydney is alive and well, and it is so good having a peaceful January after 2020 being ruined by the fires and smoke issues, 2021 by Covid restrictions which were ever changing , 2021 by massive numbers of people catching the more mild version of the virus once it was let loose at the end of 2020, and last year from the mop up after our wettest year on record in 2022.
The building problems are expected to ease this year. A lot of issues have come from the world wide problems with supplies of materials which has meant it has been all but impossible for builders to produce binding quotes. Thus have relied on variations to contracts, pushing up prices. Supplies are stabilising and surely if the incoming foreign students (who have made up the bulk of our arrivals) cannot find somewhere to live, they will not recommend life here.
Measures are being taken here already to lower the number of foreign students being accepted.
Housing is a very complex issue, approvals are taking too long but on the other hand there are too many high rise buildings being built with defects. Then there is the issue that many older apartment blocks have problems with concrete cancer. Although they can usually be repaired in a straightforward manner, getting the corporate bodies to agree is often not easy. I know as we are involved in one!
But I am not as pessimistic as some others who comment here. Sydney is alive and well, and it is so good having a peaceful January after 2020 being ruined by the fires and smoke issues, 2021 by Covid restrictions which were ever changing , 2021 by massive numbers of people catching the more mild version of the virus once it was let loose at the end of 2020, and last year from the mop up after our wettest year on record in 2022.
The building problems are expected to ease this year. A lot of issues have come from the world wide problems with supplies of materials which has meant it has been all but impossible for builders to produce binding quotes. Thus have relied on variations to contracts, pushing up prices. Supplies are stabilising and surely if the incoming foreign students (who have made up the bulk of our arrivals) cannot find somewhere to live, they will not recommend life here.
Just how effective beyond cosmetic these changes will prove to be I wonder? The FTA with India (some term Free Slave Agreement) will ensure Indian graduates at least, to Australian tertiary institutions, on a student visa, can apply to work in Australia for up to eight years without a visa.
Canada has seen a drop of 80% in enrollments from India after cracking down on turbo charged immigration there. I wonder where possibly could they go instead.?
Indian qualifications have now been deemed the equivalent of Australian degrees. Even less a deterrent to increasing numbers of students from that location.
But it doesn't stop there. plans to investment fees for purchases of established homes and to double the fee for keeping a home vacant for overseas investors could breach double taxation agreements. Eight countries including India have such agreements.
Indeed the quality of new builds in NSW appears to be one in ten apartments not built to a required standard.
What is required quite obviously is a reduction in immigration ensuring a return to more normal numbers , but the forces advocating maintaining the status quo are considerable .
Amazing how similar Canada and Australia are in this regard. One point two million migrants arrived in that country in 2023. Incredible numbers impacting standards of living there.
I don't see foreign students not maintaining high numbers in continuing to come to Australia. Such easy pathways to remain and make good money either legally of black would one assume be enticement enough.
The main difference with Canada, is I suspect the lack of tent cities and a huge visible homeless population living on the streets.
Canadian cities now have huge tent camps. You can no longer visit a downtown park without negotiating you way around a tent. Homelessness is rampant and we have nearly 2 million Canadians visiting the Food Banks......every month! Our standard of living is plunging at a shocking rate as is our per-capita GDP. We have been in a recession for the past 18 months. The economy isn't shrinking but is growing at half the pace of population growth.............we are progressively getting poorer. Our once great healthcare system is now on the verge of collapse and Lord Trudeau seems oblivious to it.
Trudeau is letting in huge numbers of refugees and they are being welcomed by social service agencies by giving them tents.........no I'm not joking and remember these people are sleeping in tents in record low temp of -30C due to the unprecedent Arctic Outflow. Canada is currently building about 220,000 housing units a year and despite already having a housing crisis, Trudeau thinks importing 1.4 million people a year won't be an issue.
Australia is not too far behind Canada. Perhaps better at concealing negatives? But policies around high immigration mirror your Canadian experience. Just why vested interests are being allowed to influence government policy to such a degree is worthy of a thread in itself.
My conclusion is that both our countries are entering a very different era on many fronts. More akin to some South American countries than the fairly stable , fairly law abiding societies we once were. These things take time to work through the system of course, but your analysis of the Canadian environment does not bid well for Australia.
I met a Canadian while conducting banking business last week. He was newly arrived of Indian background, and said much what you wrote. He was about to do a PHD here and said he no intention in returning to Canada.
Even as homeliness worsens and house prices go forever upwards, (regardless of interest rates) there is no discussion on limiting immigration numbers and give some relief to a clearly troubled market.
Just why there are no protests in the streets, (unlike Canada) is bizarre. It appears many are aware that standards of living are in decline as with traditional Australian 'values', hard to believe at times such things existed, I know. But apathy seems to be the name of the game.
It seems that the government is to cut immigration finally. I read drastically but prefer to view detail prior to commenting further. It appears only due to a growing tide of dissent though created a reaction.
“The problem with Australians is not that so many of them are descended from convicts, but that so many of them are descended from prison officers.”
apparently a Clive James quote....
"Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise" - Donald Horne, The Lucky Country, 1967.
It seems that the government is to cut immigration finally. I read drastically but prefer to view detail prior to commenting further. It appears only due to a growing tide of dissent though created a reaction.
Student visas definitely being slashed.
Some may be on bridging visas. They will be next in the firing line...
Taking back control of low skilled working visas along with faux student visas can't come soon enough . Far more needs to be done but at least a beginning.
Shut your mouths Marisa and suesbel. I am honestly reporting the CD moderators are not acting right and this website will close. CD forums is boring and sad for now on. You all have to move on to other Forums. Rip CD forums 2007-2022...
To make myself feel better, I am going on a flight to Brazil right now: ) Born in 1990s and already reaching 51 to 57 Countries visited that early in my life. The past future is such a top rank Online Posting superstar!
You can come and brag when you get to 150 k
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