An anti-immigration campaigner was told at the last minute that he could not ask a question during Q+A, in which he suggested reducing the number of international students.
Migration Watch Australia founder Jordan Knight was initially given the chance to ask a question on Monday night, but two hours before the show he received a call from a producer telling him he wouldn’t be allowed to ask his question at the ABC’s Sydney studios.
The reason given was that Knight, 30, works as a political adviser to an independent member of parliament for the Upper House of the New South Wales parliament.
But his suspension comes after a Greens campaigner was allowed to ask a question on the programme last week suggesting that international students are being unfairly blamed for the housing crisis.
Mr Knight, who works for MP Rod Roberts, wanted to ask questions about the housing of Australia’s 800,000 international students during a crisis of vacant rental properties.
Knight wanted to put his question to Housing Minister Clare O’Neil, Shadow Housing Minister Michael Sukkar, Grattan Institute chief executive Aruna Sathanapally and ABC financial commentator Alan Kohler. He wanted to know whether the high number of international students was exacerbating Australia’s rental crisis.
“Australia has more international students than Britain and almost as many as the United States,” his submitted question read.
‘Meanwhile, the number of vacant rental properties is at an all-time low. People pay 50 percent of their wages in rent.’
“My question is this. Does the panel believe that housing Australians is more important than educating foreign students?”
Jordan Knight, the founder of Migration Watch Australia, was initially given a spot to ask a question on Monday night’s program, but a producer later called him to say he would not be asking his question at the ABC’s Sydney studios
‘And if so, will they reduce the number of foreign students in the country to 50,000, so that housing becomes available for Australians?’
Mr Knight told Daily Mail Australia he received a call from a producer on Monday afternoon saying he could not ask his question because of his political position.
He thought that was hypocritical.
“I’ll be honest, her excuse was that I was a staff member, but when I checked last week they got a Greens campaigner to ask a question,” he said.
Last Monday, GroenLinks campaigner Sophia Redjeb was asked a question during the Q+A broadcast in Dandenong in the suburbs of Melbourne.
She argued that international students were unfairly blamed for the housing crisis.
“International students provide an important economic boost, but they face a cap and pay exorbitant tuition fees,” she said.
‘How do you justify blaming these students for the pressure on cities, when the real problems lie in the housing shortage and the cost of living crisis?’
Ms Redjeb’s LinkedIn profile stated that she joined The Greens three months ago as a ‘photographer, writer and aspiring journalist’.
An ABC spokeswoman stressed that Mr Knight and Ms Redjeb’s situations were different.
“Jordan Knight is a paid staffer. Q+A does not answer questions from paid political staffers,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Sophia Redjeb did an internship with the Greens.’
Last Monday, GroenLinks campaigner Sophia Redjeb was allowed to ask a question in which she suggested that international students are unfairly blamed for the housing crisis
Mr Knight said ABC rules banning political staffers were unfair. His boss, Mr Roberts, a former police officer, was elected in 2019 on the One Nation ticket of former Labor leader Mark Latham.
“I find it frustrating that employees have no say in their own national broadcaster, which they pay their tax money for,” he said.
On Monday night’s Q+A program, a question was asked by Hammad Ali, a first-generation immigrant, who asked if he had caused Australia’s housing crisis. Another question was asked by Ronan MacSweeney, who asked if reducing the number of international students would solve Australia’s housing crisis.
Education Minister Jason Clare last month announced a plan to cap the number of international students at 260,000, as Australian capital cities have an extremely low vacancy rate of 1.3 percent.
Ms O’Neil supported the plan to drastically reduce the number of international students.
“I fully support the measures the government has taken to limit the number of international students,” she said on Monday.
‘Our borders were closed for almost two years and for the first time since World War II our population declined.
“So it was logical that we would continue to have higher migration for years to come. I think it is very important that we get our migration back to normal and sustainable levels.”
An ABC spokeswoman said Knight was not allowed to ask questions because Q+A did not allow questions from political staffers.
Australia accepted 547,300 migrants last year, the highest number ever on a net basis for a calendar year.
The permanent inflow, including skilled migrants and people with humanitarian visas, was limited to 190,000 in the last budget year.
This means that international students form the vast majority of newcomers. This inflow is considered long-term inflow.
Education is Australia’s largest export service, worth $47.8 billion in 2023. That’s almost double the $26.59 billion it was in 2022, when Australia reopened its borders.
It was also the country’s most lucrative export product, after iron ore, coal and natural gas.
Mr Knight noted that his cancelled Q+A question followed a Media Watch programme on his plea in May, in which he was accused of being seditious for drawing a link between immigration and crime.
“And if the media promote Jordan Knight’s inflammatory claims without challenging them, they risk provoking exactly the kind of conflict Knight warns against,” said Paul Barry, host of Media Watch.
“It’s irresponsible, it’s xenophobic and it divides Australia.”
According to Mr. Knight, it is possible that the Q+A producer may have thought again after seeing the Media Watch segment.
“I think that’s exactly what happened, but I can’t confirm it,” he said.
“They probably looked up my name and saw that.”
He ultimately did not attend the Q+A recording.
