Barnaby Joyce claims people who ‘look like’ recent arrivals dominate auctions. Who is he talking about?

One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce says people born in Australia ‘get sick of going to a house auction and being knocked out of it by people … who look like they’ve recently arrived’. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP View image in fullscreen One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce says people born in Australia ‘get sick of going to a house auction and being knocked out of it by people … who look like they’ve recently arrived’. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP Barnaby Joyce claims people who ‘look like’ recent arrivals dominate auctions. Who is he talking about? Statistics show fewer than 1% of homes are bought by foreigners, as race discrimination commissioner warns against blaming migrants for housing woes Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce has claimed that “people who look like they’ve recently arrived” are knocking Australian buyers out of home auctions, despite tax office data showing fewer than 1% of dwellings are bought by foreigners. The federal race discrimination commissioner subsequently warned against “demonising migrants” in the debate about housing affordability. Existing property laws, extended by Labor in last month’s budget, ban non-residents from buying most Australian property types, and require foreign buyers to apply for approval from the tax office. In an interview on Channel Seven’s Sunrise on Monday, Joyce, the member for New England, called for a more sustainable immigration policy in Australia. Foreign purchases of Australian property “People in Australia, born in Australia of every creed and colour and gender, get sick of going to a house auction and being knocked out of it by people, to be frank, who look like they’ve recently arrived,” Joyce said. The Labor minister Tanya Plibersek, appearing alongside Joyce on the TV panel, replied: “They were being knocked out by investors, Barnaby. That’s why we’re changing the tax system .” Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Giridharan Sivaraman, the federal race discrimination commissioner, said discussions about migration and housing were legitimate but that “the issue is when migrants are blamed, and certain types are singled out”. “We should be able to have a nuanced, careful discussion about migration without demonising migrants,” he told Guardian Australia. Michael Fotheringham, the managing director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, said the statistics did not support Joyce’s claim. “The number of non-residents owning property is fleetingly small,” he said. Less than 1% of purchases Australian Taxation Office statistics show that in 2024-25 the number of Australian residential dwellings acquired by foreign persons was just 0.5% of all property acquisitions, numbering 2,672 out of 540,439. In 2023-24, foreign purchases were 0.8% of all property acquisitions, or 4,092 out of 525,039; and in 2022-23, the number was 0.9%, or 4,463 out of 476,136. One Nation, six farcical