Migration must be adapted to suit housing, job opportunities

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Tony Burke, the Home Affairs Minister, has supposedly said that migration is not to blame for Australia’s housing shortage, but empty bedrooms are the problem.

I’m afraid I don’t see how this can be so. We need migrants in our once great country, but the number has to be adapted to suit the housing and job opportunities.

How many bedrooms one has in their home has nothing to do with it. Those homes are in the possession of the owners and should be used as they see fit.

I certainly do not want to share my home with strangers; my extra bedrooms are there for family and friends to use when they visit.

If the extra bedrooms in one’s home are rented out to strangers or anyone else, that also entails their having the use of the kitchen, bathroom, lounge, laundry, watching the owner’s television … the list goes on.

Privacy, and perhaps safety, completely disappears. Is that what Tony Burke wants for homeowners?

As a senior, I do not want anyone other than family and friends living under my roof and I’m sure every other Australian, young or old, feels the same way.

Thalia Phelps

Narrabri