My goodness, that was a lot to take in, wasn't it? Pauline Hanson's first address at the National Press Club of Australia was awkward for those following at home.

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Hanson's speech delivered lots of soundbites all at once and they all sounded perfectly valid. I went to the experts to ask for help. I could write a book but no time.

Alan Gamlen runs ANU's Migration Hub and has researched human migration and mobility for decades. This is a man who loves numbers and is highly familiar with them. I asked him if immigration is out of control? Gamlen says our population trend has not yet recovered from the COVID years. The first three years of the Albanese government were years of recovery when we had next to no migration.

"And the issue is not mass migration or bad migration policy, it's volatility caused by the biggest disruption to migration and mobility in human history ... the total number of migrant arrivals to Australia since December 2019 is far, far lower than earlier predictions."

Departures are also lower and unlike arrivals, they have not recovered. Both Coalition and Labor governments gave extensions during and after the pandemic and those extensions are not yet due to expire.

Now, has Labor allowed mass immigration in the middle of a housing crisis? Again Gamlen says no: "The migration settings are pretty much the same as the ones the Coalition set in place."

What about the impact on housing?

Michael Fotheringham, former managing director of AHURI, the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, was blunt:

"Immigration does not impact housing. We did a big experiment. It was called the pandemic. We stopped migration for two years. House prices did not fall."

House prices did not fall.

Now, how to discuss claims about energy without losing one's mind. Tough one. I asked a renewables expert on what he thought of Hanson's claims. Saul Griffith, founder of Rewiring Australia and Rewiring America, an engineer and entrepreneur, has the........

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