Immigration ‘advantageous to Australia’

Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch has urged the country to embrace skilled immigrants, stating that doing so would make the 21st Century “Australia’s for the taking.”

Welcome to Australia....

Welcome to Australia….

Speaking at an event in Sydney last week, the Australian-born Murdoch who is now an American citizen, compared Australia’s immigration system to that of his adopted home country.

“We think of the United States as an immigrant nation, and rightly so,” explained the News Corp chairman. “But the percentage of foreign-born in the United States, a country currently racked by a self-defeating debate over immigration policy, is just about 12 per cent. Incredibly, Australia is double that.

“That means Australia is on the way to becoming what may be the world’s most diverse nation. This is an incredible competitive advantage.  A nation as small as ours will increasingly depend on trade and the more people we have with ties to other parts of the world, the greater our advantage when we seek trade relationships with these nations.”

However, despite his call for more skilled immigrants, Murdoch continues to back the new Australian government’s tough stance of asylum seekers, and did state that all newcomers should abide by Australia’s values, institutions and way of life.

“There is still a strand among some parts of Australian society who seem to value every culture except our own,” he said.

Article published 5th November 2013

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