Population growth has been a hot political topic in recent months.
As the Australian election draws near and the population argument rages on, a new political party has sprung up from the seeds of discontentment amongst some Australians.
Stop Population Growth Now (SPGN) hardly rolls off the tongue but the party, headed by Bob Couch, is running for a seat in the Senate this year and hope to see their name on the federal voting ballot paper.
The Australian population is expected to reach 42 million by 2050, a story that media in Australia have been more than happy to dwell on for months now. Immigrants to Australia have largely been blamed for this rise and some sceptics have called for a cap on immigration numbers. However Kevin Rudd’s government have recently allocated Tony Burke MP for the position of Population Minister and have given him the task of developing a comprehensive population strategy, in order to address population fears and consider the social and economic infrastructures Australia will need to put in place to support its growing population.
None of this is good enough for the SPGN who believe that Australia’s population will top 50 million, crippling vital services and bringing the country to its knees. SPGN leader Bob Couch says that he has the backing of ordinary Australians; “Four polls in recent months have all indicated that about 70% of Australians do not support the Rudd government’s deliberate push for a ‘big Australia’ with all its adverse environmental, social and economic consequences.”
However the SPGN party does not make clear what actions it would take to slow down or even halt population growth. The Sustainable Population Australia group (SPA) say their objectives would be to “encourage near replacement fertility rates and low immigration rates.” Another critic of ‘big Australia’ is high-profile businessman Dick Smith who has given various media interviews warning of near apocalyptic chaos if the population surge is not halted. He has called for a cut in skilled migrant intakes and encouraging people to have fewer children.
The problem with encouraging people to have fewer children, that both Mr Smith and the SPA advocate is just how do you do that? According to indexmundi.com the average birth rate in Australia is estimated at 1.78 children born per woman. Birth rates have been more or less stable since 2003.
With regards to immigration, the Australian Department for Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) have already cut the numbers of general skilled migrants in favour of highly skilled migrants and have closed loopholes that allowed foreign students in Australia to apply for permanent visas once they were in the country. English language test results have been raised and the Migration Occupations in Demand list has been abandoned in favour of a national Skilled Occupation List. These moves by the DIAC all point to a tightening of immigration.
However Australia has been built on immigration. Its agricultural industry relies on temporary visa holders to do the seasonal work that local Australians shy away from. The mining industry also rely on migrants to fill the skilled vacancies that are not covered by local workers. Big businesses recently got together to highlight the importance of migrants for the economy.
But with recent polls suggesting that green issues are overtaking population concerns amongst voters, perhaps it’s time the media shifted their focus elsewhere before the population debate runs out of steam.
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