The recent upsurge in net migration has been attributed to border closures during the pandemic, but Dr Abul Rizvi explains the real factors contributing to it.

SHANE WRIGHT, in the Sydney Morning Herald, says the Government is arguing much of the increase [in net migration] is due to a catch-up caused by the border closure. While high net migration in 2022-23 will partly offset the low net migration during the pandemic, the catch-up argument seems more of a media talking point than a policy explanation given net migration in 2022 significantly exceeded all Treasury forecasts.

The real explanation for record net migration in 2022 (and to date in 2023) is a mixture of COVID-era policy settings put in place by the Coalition Government (and retained by the Albanese Government until 1 July 2023) and an ultra-hot labour market.

Wrights article follows the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) last week releasing its preliminary estimate of net migration in 2022 of a record 387,000. I wrote on surging net migration through the second half of 2022 and summarised the situation in January 2023.

The ABS explains that:

Recovery of international student arrivals is driving net overseas migration to historic highs, while departures are lagging behind levels typically seen over the past decade. This pattern is expected to continue as international students return following the reopening of international borders, however, there are fewer students ready to depart because very few arrived during the pandemic.

This is only partly correct. Certainly, offshore demand for overseas student visas bo...

Racism still courses through our national bloodstream, but we can begin to wipe out hatred by reflecting on innovations of the past to move forward, writes Bilal Cleland.

THERE IS CURRENTLY an outstanding TV series that addresses the poisonous colonial racism which still exists.

A joint production of NITV and Channel 10, The First Inventors demonstrates the huge influence the First Nations had upon our continent.

The eel traps in southwestern Victoria on the swamps and the lake named by the colonists as Condah are believed by archaeologists to be the first example of aquaculture on Earth.

The landscape was manipulated over many kilometres to create ponds and channels in which eels could be trapped in the breeding season, presenting a reliable food supply.

The area also contains stone houses which suggests that the tribal people were not nomadic.

The eel traps were used for over 7,000 years, coming to an end only with White colonisation, the draining of the swamp and the establishment of the concentration camps called mission stations in the 1800s.

First Nations guardians explain how the Queensland rainforest is composed of recent-growth forest, allowed to flourish since the original caretakers of the land were displaced. Traditional burning and weed control ended with White settlement and ethnic cleansing.

Scientific study of samples of soil down a couple of metres in the rainforest of Tasmania has shown that this, too, is relatively recent.

Over hundreds of years, the soil sample shows grassland and trees, typical of the managed landscapes over 12,000 years, with a sudden and obvious change about 200 years ago when the grasslands vanish and dense eucalyptus tree cover occurs.

White colonisation and genocide brought back the forest.

The first program showed how traditional burning removed weeds, did not endanger trees and permitted wildlife, including insects, to escape the fire.

Such information may provide the antidote to the poison of racism in our society for most people but not for the dyed-in-the-wool haters who are no longer dominant.

Similar information was made available...

In the past week, there have been setbacks for the pursuit of equality as the mainstream media continues to lash out against women's rights, writes Dr Jennifer Wilson.

*CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses rape

*Also listen to the "https://open.spotify.com/episode/3yDj64Rq3OTrKri0kAL9Oi" target= "_blank">HERE.

FORMER Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said on ABC radio recently that we (women) lost a lot of ground last week, after several days of unrelenting attacks on Brittany Higgins and Labor politicians who supported her, by the Liberals and their media arms.

Further to Ms Jenkins recent report into the conditions women endure in Parliament House, many of her recommendations are being introduced into that workplace. However, theres little chance of useful reform when politicians create a climate in which it is extremely difficult for women to take advantage of the new processes.

After witnessing the public savagery inflicted on Higgins by powerful actors in politics, media and the legal system for several years now, it will be a brave woman indeed who risks reporting sexual harassment and/or assault in that place. This of course has a flow-on effect to all of us outside, particularly as the role of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in this saga implodes under scrutiny.

The Liberal goal appears...

The media campaign against Brittany Higgins was a revenge tactic by the Murdoch press after she exposed the Liberal Party's ignorance of women's issues, writes Dr Victoria Fielding.

*CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses rape

WHEN BRITTANY HIGGINS took her allegations of rape to the media in 2021, she used her story as a weapon in an uphill battle to seek justice. The problem women have in picking up a weapon is that it can be grabbed from their hands and used against them. That is exactly what the Murdoch media is doing to Higgins and anyone who supported her.

Women face enormous hurdles in taking allegations about sexual assault to the police and then to court. Almost 90% of sexual assault victims do not go to the police. The reason for this is that they are concerned their allegations wont be taken seriously or believed and that they might suffer personal or professional repercussions for reporting the perpetrator.

Brittany Higgins was one of these 90% of women for two years after she alleged she was raped by her senior colleague, Bruce Lehrmann, in a Parliament House office on 23 March 2019. She did initially go to the police on the same day Lehrmann was sacked, allegedly for a security breach, on 1 April 2019. However, she says she feared if she pursued the allegations further, her job was at risk.

For almost two years after the alleged incident, Higgins continued to work for the Liberal Government, campaigning for...

A celebration was held for the defining moment in modern environmental activism that led to the protection of rainforests across NSW, writes Charles Hunter.

ON SUNDAY 18 June 2023, locals from Northern NSW joined National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) staff and the traditional owners Widjabul Wia-bal to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Nightcap National Park. Its somewhat unusual to attend a party to celebrate the creation of a national park but there is an incredible story behind Nightcap.

The 8,080-hectare Nightcap estate, which is part of the Wollumbin Caldera, is located in Northern NSW near Byron Bay and protects ancient Gondwanan rainforests containing trees with lineages dating back many millions of years and a forest that has the highest biodiversity in NSW. This is certainly worth celebrating, however, the true celebration was for the inspiring story of why the park was created 40 years ago.

The story begins almost ten years before Nightcap was gazetted in late 1974, the year Nan and Hugh Nicholson moved up from Melbourne to live a quiet life next to the ancient Gondwanan rainforest at Terania Creek in Northern NSW (Bundjalung Country), not long after the infamous Aquarius Festival was held in nearby Nimbin. But just a few months after the Nicholsons had moved, Hugh discovered some harrowing news.

Australias jobs market has improved greatly over the first year of the Albanese Government, as Alan Austin reports.

IN HIS FIRST YEAR as Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese has increased the number of Australians in the paid workforce by 3.44% to an all-time high of 14 million plus a few. That gives Albo the best record of any prime minister from Malcolm Fraser onwards, when the current data series began.

Thats according to the monthly jobs figures released last Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This data batch contains several hidden items worth celebrating, with credit shared, of course, by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and workforce ministers Tony Burke and Brendan OConnor.

The jobless rate improved from 3.68% to 3.55% in May. Thats down from 3.91% when Labor took charge. Jobs added so far this year come to 220,000. The total over the full year to 31 May 2023 is an impressive 465,500.

The percentage of all workers with full-time jobs is now steadily rising, as the economy improves. For the last four months, more than 70% of all workers were in full-time jobs. The last time this happened was in 2012 when Julia Gillard was PM. Jobs relative to population are also steadily rising.

All-time high hours worked per person

This measure is arguably the strongest evidence that current economic policies are getting people into productive work.

As several IA contributors have argued, notably...