Australia is traditionally a country built on immigration.
As the row continues about population growth in Australia, it is really fair for the finger of blame to be pointed at immigration policy and should the population growth be seen only as a problem?
Today Queensland Premier Anna Bligh stepped into the population row by insisting that the government should have a 20 year population and infrastructure plan in order to sustain Rudd’s “big Australia” vision.
Queensland is currently Australia’s third most populated state and whilst Western Australia may be the fastest growing population wise, it is Queensland who is taking in the bulk of overseas migrants. In 2008 just under 107,000 new residents moved to Queensland according to the ABS. In the 2006 census 17.9% of Queenslanders were born overseas and this figure is sure to have risen in the past four years.
Ms Bligh in writing for The Australian newspaper said: “the state is growing by 2200 new residents every week, the equivalent of a city the size of Darwin every year, with 70% settling in southeast Queensland.”
The eligible skills list for migrant sponsorship within Queensland show that the state is still seeking those who work within the healthcare industry as well as IT professionals and engineers.
Ms Bligh will be attending a two day summit on the thorny issue of population growth but already the summit is off to a bad start with environmentalists saying that it is doomed to fail and Queensland Conservation Council secretary Simon Baltais also doubting the motives behind the summit as he says it merely strives to manage rather than control population growth.
So are the critics of population growth right that Australia faces a huge problem or are they merely reacting with some hysteria and pointing the finger of blame at Australian immigration policy?
The current population of Australia is 21 million and if government predictions are right about the rate of population growth, Australia will have a population of 35 million by 2050. By comparison the UK, which is 14 times smaller than Australia, already has a population of 61 million.
Australia does not have the highest immigration levels globally, that title goes to the United Arab Emirates. Australia is 14th whilst Canada is 16th. A look at how Canada maintains its infrastructure may benefit the Australian summit as the Canadian government uses the population levels to benefit Canada’s economy. Canada has the 10th largest economy in the world and its economy is booming with new jobs being created every day.
Critics of population growth argue that a growing population also means an ageing population. Whilst Australian residents are young they are contributing to taxes and helping Australia to prosper. However critics also need to note that these ‘boomers’ are also contributing to their own pension funds and this young generation are savers, which in turn generates tax for the economy and ensures that the ageing population isn’t such a drain on resources.
In fact if we look globally at the recession, one of the reasons Australia was able to avoid falling into the same pit that many other countries suffered was because of the buoyancy of the economy. A buoyancy helped no doubt by a young, working population. Australia has strong export ties with China to produce LPG, additional gas reserves are still being discovered in Western Australia. In order for those multi-billion dollar gas projects to work, the companies need a good, young workforce. A reliance on Australian workers sees a shift in migration patterns, so workers migrating from Queensland to WA leaves Queensland short of skilled workers. Therefore immigration to Australia is vital for the Australian economy. Australia remains a top destination for British migrants precisely because there is work available whilst the UK is still busy making redundancies.
There are always going to be problems with a growing population. Environmental concerns are great, but with a good infrastructure in place the population can be managed effectively. Australia cannot have it both ways, you cannot have a prosperous country without the workers to back it up. Immigration levels in Australia may be high, but the Department of Immigration and Citizenship are getting tougher on visa applications and with good communication within states, the DIAC can ensure that the right skilled workers are directed to exactly where they are needed.
Perhaps it’s time that Australia stopped seeing population growth as a problem and started looking at the benefits it creates instead.
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13 Responses to “Population Growth Can Benefit Australia”
Comment by swinging voter — March 29, 2010 @ 10:37 am
kev07 had one of Australia’s largest foreign worker intakes up until sep 2009. As an australian trained engineer, i spent 9 months of 2009 out of work. I have been sacked 5 times in order to make room for significantly lesser skilled engineers trained in 3rd world countries. As a skilled and experienced engineer, i had to move to sydney to look for work after living in brisbane for 34years. meanwhile anna is happy because i just made room for another migrant worker.
the blatant reverse discrimination is getting sickening and effecting my psychological health. been divorced once…..cant get married and have kids because i cant hold down a job, because i keep getting sacked to make way for migrants………how does that make for a bigger australia kev07?
Comment by Population Growth IS a problem — March 29, 2010 @ 10:29 pm
It’s disheartening to read this article. Very little is mentioned on how much of our very fragile environment will be destroyed by the large population. Already we have to build desalination plans because of water shortage. What about the plan to move koala population from South East Queensland due to population growth? I guess the economy buoyant has made Australians more selfish. All we can think of is personal wealth, and how to make more money. It doesn’t mean we have to stop immigration all together, but we need to be smarter. Is it wise to bring in so many people onto this shore if we have to destroy others habitat? Forget about ETS, what we need is a better immigration and population planning.
Comment by Greg Wood — March 30, 2010 @ 8:04 am
“Perhaps it’s time that Australia stopped seeing population growth as a problem and started looking at the benefits it creates instead.”
Perhaps its time that ‘pie in the sky’ cornucopians began to start seeing the tragically real impacts of this ‘big Australia’ fantasy.
Swinging’s personal account is neither uncommon nor conscionable to allow as a common consequence of formal policy.
Add to it:
Cherry picking skills from underdeveloped nations they cannot afford to lose.
Using this windfall resource to avoid investing in training and employing our own youth.
Forcing land and housing prices through the stratosphere due to the forced population pressures.
Creating water, energy, and fresh food shortages and price spirals
Buckling public infrastructure budgets causing escalation of public and private debt levels.
BTW, we ‘avoided’ the GFC by compounding public debt to un-repayable levels. Great result. Now we have to let foreign corporations dig out and export our energy and mineral resources at even faster rates of depletion just to pay the interest on the debt.
The arithmetic is very simple:
More people + finite and depleting resources = less each.
Comment by Greg Wood — March 30, 2010 @ 8:07 am
Just realised, this is not a real discussion.
This website is a front for profiteering from reckless levels of immigration.
Good one guys.
Comment by Madeline Weld — April 1, 2010 @ 2:15 am
I am not sure where Ms. Valentine gets the impression that “the Canadian government uses the population levels to benefits Canada’s economy.” Since the early 1990s, Canada has been taking in 250,000 or more newcomers each year, regardless of the state of the economy. As in Australia, immigrants congregate in Canada’s largest urban centres. Most people in Australia live near its perimeter. In Canada, 90% of the population lives within 150 kilometres of the US border. In southern Ontario and the lower mainland of British Columbia, intense urbanization has taken a tremendous toll on farmland and the environment. The alleged economic benefits of the policy of mass immigration pursued by the government of Canada under various parties is belied by the findings of Statistics Canada. According to the 2006 census, the real earnings of Canadians (in constant 2005 dollars) increased by only 0.1% between 1980 and 2005. But the earnings of the poorest fifth actually fell by 20% while the earnings of the richest fifth increased by 16%. Immigrants of recent decades are falling farther behind other Canadians economically and according to the calculations of Fraser Institute economist Herb Grubel, recent immigrants received $18.2 billion CAD more in government services than they paid in taxes in 2002. Canada lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in the recent recession and has an unemployment rate over 8%. As appears to be the case in Australia, Canada’s immigration policy of recent decades is designed for the benefit of certain business interests (including what we call the immigration industry) and politicians, but does not serve the interests of ordinary Canadians and, like the idea of “Big Australia,” gives no thought to the future.
Madeline Weld
President, Population Institute of Canada
Comment by Tim Murray — April 1, 2010 @ 4:12 am
“A look at how Canada maintains its infrastructure may benefit the Australian summit as the Canadian government uses the population levels to benefit Canada’s economy.” Lisa Valentine, “Embrace Australia”
Hmmm. Somebody better tell that to Canadian economists Herb Grubel and Patrick O’Grady. I guess immigration doesn’t impose an annual fiscal burden of over $18 billion after all. And I guess 80% of immigrants to Canada are NOT unskilled and half of them are NOT functionally illiterate in both our official languages after all. And may be professional wages have not dropped 7% since mass immigration began in 1990 after all. Stats Can was lying.
Thank goodness we have someone 10,000 miles away to notice something that we haven’t noticed these past two decades. Immigrant driven population growth has been good for Canada— why can’t we see that?
Gee whiz. Foreign commentators say that Canada’s policy of multiculturalism is a model of ethnic harmony and tolerance for the world, that Canada’s policy of mass immigration has been good for the economy and that Vancouver is a success story in urban planning for increased density and rapid transist. One day I would like to live in this mythical country. One thing though. Canadians can’t take credit for introducing trail-blazing, progressive laws against free speech. I think North Korea or Stalinist Russia should get the nod for that accolade.
Tim Murray
BC, Canada
Comment by Iknowthings — May 27, 2010 @ 2:37 am
I know things
Comment by sophie — July 27, 2010 @ 1:14 am
the enviroment is important, but there are so many people on the planet and people are becoming greeding. this is a fact we have to live up to. people have messed up the earth and other people are coming to australia to try and escape that, it’s not their fault for being born in a suffering country. the only soultion is to sop putting money be life… though im not sure if humans can do that.
Comment by sophie — July 27, 2010 @ 1:17 am
P.S im only 11 but i show more compassion than you people who blame people who travel in hope of a new life… the world is so sad….
Comment by sophie — July 27, 2010 @ 1:30 am
P.P.S i suck at spelling incase youm haven’t notised
Comment by Lisa Valentine — July 27, 2010 @ 4:04 pm
Hi Sophie
You show a lot of maturity beyond your years and I applaud your compassion and consideration. Unfortunately there is a huge divide in the world between the countries that have and the countries that have not. If all the countries that had, were to divide their surplus around the world there would still be plenty left over, but unfortunately this world is far from ideal and selfish people tend to run countries. What we need are more people like you to put grown ups in their place and make us think about what we are doing.
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. I hope your words will make a difference to someone
Lisa
Comment by Diana Parraga — January 12, 2011 @ 7:04 am
Good Afternoon,
I am 24, I am from Venezuela. i came to australia to learn english and also to do a master. I understand both side. Venezuela that is qualify as third world happened for the same about not selecting adequated people to get in my country, besides the illegal people who are there looking for opportunities that they are wrong and cannot achieve for economicals, politics and social problems. Actually, we have a president (Chavez) that for his purpuse was and is to get more illegal people to voting for him. People who dont have house, job, nothing, causing crimes. There predomine a lot of corruption. However, the principal fact that brought me to come to Australia is because i cannot stay in a country that does not offer me security and where i dont have freedom of speech, among other facts. we are almost in a dictatorialship. i cannot exersice my rights.
Venezuela is a rich country but politics steal our income, and that happen everywhere and you dont see where it is.
My point is, i came here to be a better proffesional, to have a better life, and i am investing a lot money to achiave my goal. Each person have different reasons to escape from his/her country. I am fullfiling all the requirements that immigration wants me to do to get the resident here and it cost money and years.
I think that some people here ignore that Australia have policies for immigrants. i really would like that my country respect the law. however, It would be unfair that after many years studying hard, speding all my money to get a decent job here and life that in the end everyone anywhere wish and dont get it.
These people generally with that ideal, go to other country to contribute what they cannot do in their countries, so people cannot discriminate overseas people when they are ignoring the process that they have to accomplish. despite to tolerate racims, attacks and any kind of discrimination in a strage country that foreign people of course dont want.
The mistakes that Australia government commit is not fault of foreing people, because they are fulfilling the requirements.
sorry for my poor english, i hope that you understand what is my point of view and that i am here working hard to achieve my goals.
Comment by xx — April 16, 2011 @ 9:00 am
Oh wow its Ms Mad again. The one who believes that only rich people like her have the right to reproduce because all the poor people are going to eat her resources so she cant live her nice all consuming lifestyle . So in exchange, 10 somalians (name your favourite country) should not be born so she can live her nice lifestyle. I mean why not right, damn those developing countries who are destroying our climate by reproducing! they should live in a rut for the rest of their life.
Hope to god she gets born in that damn country her next life. she how she feels about her right to live a proper life.