“Motivate, Collaborate, Populate, Celebrate – Australia.” - Harry Triguboff

I have always been motivated to find solutions, I am always ready to collaborate with the government and I stand behind immigration – as I always have.

It is very frustrating that the government doesn’t seem to grasp the importance of bringing more skilled people into the country – and bringing in more investors.

Without immigration, Australia will suffer – and Australians will suffer.

Without investors, the rental market shrinks, rents rise and Australians suffer more with the cost of living. Something they can ill afford to do.

We need skilled migrants, particularly because we have a housing crisis to resolve and we simply do not have enough skilled people here to meet the demand.

Look around at the quality of some of the new buildings being constructed today. In many cases, the standard is nowhere near what it was five years ago – except at Meriton.

Some builders try to adjust to changing market conditions by reducing quality. Others pay extraordinarily high wages simply to attract the people they need. That puts enormous pressure on costs and is one of the reasons builders get into financial trouble.

At Meriton, we have always taken a different approach.

We have some of the best skilled workers in the industry. Why? Because since Meriton started building in 1963, we have paid fair wages and, importantly, provided our workers with security. When one building is finished, they can move onto the next.

As a result, they stay with us – one generation after another. I don’t think there has ever been a time when we haven’t had a Scottish McDonald working on one of our sites.

That experience matters.

The government cannot simply pluck a number out of the air and decide how much immigration should be reduced without considering everything the country actually needs.

I know severely reducing immigration numbers is going to make Australia more vulnerable and less independent.

We have a housing shortage. Who is going to build the quality homes Australia needs if we do not have the right skilled people to build them?

Quality is also one of the reasons we continue to sell apartments. Sales may not be at the levels they were at the height of the market, but buyers – whether they were born here or migrated here – still want the quality.

We consistently deliver a quality product at a price point that provides value and remains within reach of buyers.

It demonstrates the strength of the Meriton model and the enduring appeal of offering quality, value and certainty in all market conditions.

And quality is all anyone who works for me knows how to build.

It doesn’t matter when we build or what the market conditions are. We build quality. Bringing less-skilled workers onto building sites and paying them more simply because there is a shortage is not the way we operate.

In fact, over the years our product has only improved.

We have found ways to give buyers more usable living space. We have reduced the size of laundries and reconsidered the number of baths where appropriate, creating more space in bathrooms and kitchens and allowing features such as island benches that people actually want.

My builders know, whether they are locals or migrants, that nothing changes in our buildings unless it is an improvement.

Even when interest rates rise and market conditions become more difficult, we continue to sell. Our buildings have a reputation for quality and our workers have the security of knowing there is another project waiting for them. They have permanent work with us.

Meriton sales are 18 per cent higher for the period January – October compared with the same period in 2025. In a market that has experienced four interest rate increases, together with tax changes impacting investors, this is a remarkable result.

The government needs to take a much closer look at who it is looking out for Australia.

Reducing immigration may sound like an easy response to some of the pressures the country faces. But if we lock out the skilled people and we need to build homes, increase supply and improve productivity, we may not solve those problems at all. We may simply make them worse.