What Harry Triguboff really thinks about local councils and Chinese migrants
Billionaire apartment builder Harry Triguboff says the slow approval of new developments from local councils is partly responsible for Sydney’s housing crisis and has called for council staff to receive bonuses if they approve more development applications.
In a 90-minute conversation on the Straight Talk with Mark Bouris podcast, the prolific Meriton developer, 91, also said Australia should significantly increase its immigration rate before saying Chinese migrants may “take over” the country.
Billionaire property developer Harry Triguboff began working in Sydney property in his late 20s.Credit: Arsineh Houspian
Councils – along with banks refusing to lend to potential buyers – were the biggest inhibitor to his developments, Triguboff said.
“The councils don’t approve anything fast. I have a lot of money, I would love to build more, but I can’t get approval,” he told Bouris, the founder of Wizard Home Loans.
Councils approve 97 per cent of local development applications, but in Sydney, the speed with which they are approved differs dramatically: in the past financial year, Wollondilly Shire Council took an average of 58 days to respond to a development application (DA), while Georges River Council took 259 days.
“I always watched which council has good bureaucrats because if you have the wrong bureaucrats, they’ll sink you,” he said, singling out Ryde Council for previously being a “good council” that allowed him to develop the area for 35 years.
“The problem is that councils are voted in,” he said of the third tier of government. He reported councillors tell him, “Harry, what you said is perfectly right … but if we approve it, we’ll lose the seat”.
“So I say, alderman shouldn’t have the right to approve. Because they’re not doing it for the good of the country, they’re doing it for the good of themselves.
“The bureaucrats [should approve]. If the bureaucrats approve more, they should be given bonuses.”
Triguboff began working in Sydney property in his late 20s when he used the money his father gave him – “enough to buy a cottage, say, in Willoughby” – to invest in companies and then buy a block of apartments in Dulwich Hill, he said. In the decades since, he has grown to hold enormous influence over state politics and urban development, becoming the second-richest person in Australia.
Last year, a planning panel rejected his long-feted high-rise transformation of south-east Sydney’s Little Bay for a third time. It was revealed that a year earlier he had written to then-housing minister Anthony Roberts: “You need the money and we need the money too.”
Chinese will ‘take over’
Triguboff, born in China to Russian Jewish parents, also said that while he strongly supported a high immigration rate, he believed Australia needed “various types” of migrants from different countries.
“We need more immigration, because if we have no migrants, it’s very, very difficult [to build] ... Life is so difficult in so much of the world that everybody would love to come here. Not to destroy us, they just want to come to live here. It’s a good place to live,” he said.
“Chinese are wonderful migrants but if we bring many of them, they will take over. Forget about fighting. No fighting, no fighting. Because they are all young. Many Australians are old, they will live longer.
“Now, I like east Europeans very much, because they know how to work. They’re well educated, they will be good. I think South Americans are good, too. But we can’t just depend on one lot. Of course Chinese are the best, they have money and they work and they study, and they’re young, but we can’t depend on one type.
“I mean, if you talk about Vietnamese, or a guy from Taiwan, they are still the same Chinese – there’s no difference between them. So we have to just make sure we have all kinds. And they themselves want all kinds. If they love themselves so much to be Chinese, why did they come in the first place?”
A Meriton spokesperson said his comments were “part of a broader discussion highlighting the vital role migration plays in Australia’s growth and the contributions of various communities to the nation”.
“In the podcast, Mr Triguboff expressed his enduring respect for Chinese migrants, recognising them as hardworking, entrepreneurial and deeply committed to education,” the spokesperson said. “However, he also reaffirmed his advocacy for a balanced and diverse migration approach, which he believes would better serve Australia’s long-term interests.”
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