My dear Sikh friend recently confided that he had experienced racial abuse not once, but twice in the past three weeks.
This revelation saddened and shook me. He went on to say that prior to that he had only experienced racial abuse on his arrival in Melbourne many years ago.
Like other members of the local Sikh community he’s a person I admire deeply: kind, generous and always ready to lend a helping hand. It led me to wonder what is really triggering the recent spate of racial hatred and ignorance.
Before I attempt to answer that question, I reflected on my own upbringing in the northern suburbs of Melbourne in the 1950s and 60s and the fact that racism against immigrants is not a new scourge.
Our community saw an influx of Italian, Greek and Maltese immigrants. They were employed in northern suburbs factories and soon became integral to our lives. As kids, we played together, cementing bonds that transcended language barriers.
Inevitably though, I encountered moments that opened my eyes to the absurdity of racism. An exchange with my best friend who proclaimed, “I hate wogs” left me speechless. I responded “Enzo, Angelo and Marco are our mates, so you hate them do you”? He said somewhat surprised, “oh no, they’re different”.
This is a classic example of the absurdity of racism that blinds us to our shared humanity.
Fast forward to my junior footy days where we had a Chinese kid, half forward flanker, silky skills and a top bloke. Sadly, opposing teams and parents would hurl unmerciful racial abuse at him. It’s unimaginable to consider a scenario where your child is subjected to racial taunts. We would find that pain unbearable.
My own heritage, Irish on my father’s side and my mother’s father was Lebanese. As Australians, we are all children of immigrants somewhere down the line – except for Indigenous peoples who have called this land home for millennia.
Sixty per cent of Australia’s Gross National Product is from the services industry. Immigration has brought immeasurable wealth to this country and many current immigrants largely staff our hospitals, aged care and disability services. Their contribution to small business and job creation is also immeasurable.
So, back to my earlier point, the Australian housing crisis is a major trigger of racism. People wrongly believe migrants are buying up houses and disenfranchising our children from home ownership.
This is patently untrue.
The inability of our young people to buy a home is a result of flawed government policy introduced in the late 1990s. That is, Capital Gains Tax benefits (handouts) and Negative Gearing which subsidise and reward investors.
This is the root cause of the current housing crisis, not migration. Housing sales data absolutely prove that fact.
The facts – Australian housing data revealed that government subsidies investors purchased nearly double the number of homes compared to that of first-time buyers.
Investor purchases versus First-Home Buyers: As of late 2025, investors accounted for a record 39 per cent to over 40 per cent of the mortgage market, while first-home buyers represented approximately 21–22 per cent of total loans.
Overall Buyer Share: Overseas migrants represent approximately seven per cent of total real estate buyers in Australia.
Foreign Buyer Share: Foreign buyers (who may or may not be new residents) accounted for only 0.8 per cent to one per cent of property transactions in the 2022-23 financial year.
So, before people blithely blame immigrants please check the facts.
There are of course other factors to consider. The need to drastically increase building social housing and ban foreign investment in our domestic housing market. Even though this is 0.8 per cent to one percent, it’s the principle.
There is also BnB’s, which have largely replaced rental stock particularly in rural areas. Sorry, that’s not immigrants and overseas students.
Stop the demonisation of migrants for our housing crisis when fault squarely lies with the disgraceful failure of government policy.
A policy that is causing gross inequality and racial division.
* Tony Fitzgerald is a former CEO of Outlook Australia and a finalist in the 2015 Australian Human Rights Awards.
