00:00 So a lot of kind of no brainers, I suspect, in this intergenerational report. And that
00:08 is what we've known for a long time. Australia's population is ageing and that presents many
00:15 challenges for the Australian economy. But with those challenges come opportunities.
00:20 And hopefully when we see the final report this Thursday, we'll get a greater idea on
00:28 how to take hold of those opportunities and make things more comfortable going forward
00:34 to ensure that living standards in Australia do not decline. Because that's the real prospect
00:41 demographically that this country is faced with.
00:44 When we talk about the population growing by 14 million in 40 years, it also suggests
00:50 that half the population will be migrants. How will that change the fabric of the country?
00:55 I think it's not going to unsettle anything in this country. Australia is a proud migrant
01:02 country. Since our early black history, there was migration to this country. And so what
01:10 we've learned is that migration is indeed the fabric of our economy. It's what's keeping
01:16 this nation afloat. Many will be concerned when they look at these figures, especially
01:21 when we're talking about the growth in terms of actual quantum and the types of language
01:27 that media is using, kind of swelling and exploding population like it's out of control.
01:34 That's not the case here. Australia's migration program is a very measured, skills driven
01:40 scheme. In fact, it's got the world interested in how we get it right here. There's lots
01:45 to improve on, but it's certainly working for Australia at the moment. And that's because
01:51 our ageing population means that relative to the population, we have fewer people ageing
01:58 into the workforce than there are ageing out via retirement. And that means a shrinking
02:06 individual income tax base that could spell economic grim for the nation. Migration helps
02:15 keep us economically afloat and COVID's natural experiment by way of closed borders and so
02:22 on shows that migrants don't inflate house prices. They don't steal local jobs and they
02:29 don't suppress wages. So there's lots that we can improve, certainly with our migration
02:35 scheme. But I'm certain Australians will be very proud of our migration history. We have
02:42 an ageing population. We need to ensure that we have sustainable economic plans in place.
02:49 I want to come to the age of the population in a moment, but let's just stick with migration
02:52 because you raised a couple of really good points there. So you don't believe that there's
02:57 likely to be attention within the Australian public about there being greater migration
03:03 to Australia. You know, some people are already blaming migration for the housing shortage
03:07 and saying that higher house prices are a result of the borders reopening post COVID.
03:14 There's a lot of fear swirling around migration and all it takes is one media reporting to
03:22 use inflammatory language that really fuels fear. So we've got to be really careful here
03:30 about how we consider change and how we kind of lead and the language that we use when
03:37 we talk about the population headwinds that we're entering. That means being very cautious
03:43 and about avoiding causing trouble when it comes to pointing issues on the so-called
03:51 other population, you know, the so-called African gangs and so forth. It's an easy political
03:56 game. It happens particularly around election cycles, particularly when an opposition or
04:03 a government needs to get quick wins on the board that needs to end. The reality is Australia
04:11 needs migration. We also need leadership, language and conduct that really looks like
04:18 Australia needs people to come to this place that is welcoming and more importantly, that
04:24 offers a reciprocal relationship for people that do take a punt on this place and come
04:31 very long distances up rooting their lives to invest in this nation.
04:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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