Tuesday night’s federal Budget forecast a “surge in net overseas migration” over the next couple of years, as fewer people leave and many overseas students, skilled temporary visa holders and working holidaymakers return following the pandemic. The “surge” is expected to be temporary – a rebound from the huge decline in net migration during the pandemic – but never one to miss out on a headline, opposition leader Peter Dutton went on the attack:

There is no doubt that Australia has plenty of problems. Inflation is still running hot, rental properties are expensive and ridiculously hard to find, and profits for some companies – especially those in the mining sector – are, or at least were recently, at/close to record highs. Meanwhile, real wages are declining and the nation’s productivity over the last decade (the key driver of long-run real wages growth) was at a 60-year low.