Devastating effects have been predicted as a result of Australia’s rapid population growth – making backyards a thing of the past, blowing out commuting times and causing intense crowding.
Sydney’s population is set to rise by 2.6million in the next few decades according to a government report.
The report, titled ‘Future Cities: Planning for our growing population’, also details how Melbourne will add 2.8million people by 2046 and is expected to leapfrog Sydney as Australia’s largest city.
Australia is set to gain 11.8million residents over the next 30 years, ballooning to 36million in total.
Sustainable Australia party president William Bourke told the Today show Australia’s current immigration levels desperately needed to be slashed.
Experts are warning of the devastating effects Australia’s rapid population growth will have – making backyards a thing of the past, blowing out commuting times and causing severe crowding
Australia is set to gain 11.8million residents over the next 30 years, ballooning to 36million in total
‘Our permanent annual intake has been 190,000 a year for probably a decade, plus humanitarian refugees. So, it is over 200,000 total. Now, the long- term average over the 20th century was about 70,000. That’s the normal level. That was the sustainable level.
‘The level that worked so well for Australia in the 20th century has made our country great.’
Mr Burke said current immigration levels were leading to ‘less secure jobs and lower wage growth, less affordable housing, overdevelopment and serious environmental impacts’.
‘If you flood the market with workers, you only have to look at your 7-Elevens. If you flood the market with migrant workers, it pushes down wages and migrants are exploited. We have to take migration back to the sustainable level and get the settings right.’
Self-made billionaire Dick Smith told Daily Mail Australia the report’s findings were a concern.
‘If the population goes to the figure they’re talking about it will be all downhill for working Australians,’ he said.
‘We’re past the sweet point now.’
He said Australia could support 1billion people but the cost would be living in ‘huge skyscrapers’ and living like ‘battery hens’.
Sydney’s population is set to rise by 2.6million in the next few decades according to a government report
He said immigration levels should be cut to 70,000 a year, the level ‘that made Australia great’.
‘If we went back to that it would stabilise the population under 30 million people.’
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has called for Australia to drop its immigration numbers from 190,000 to 1110,000 a year.
‘It’s a basic law of economics that increasing the supply of labour depresses wages, and that increasing demand for housing boosts price.’
Sustainable Australia party president William Bourke told the Today show Australia’s current immigration levels desperately needed to be slashed
Meanwhile, Labor has accused the government of dog-whistle politics as the Home Affairs department considers a new plan to use spies to covertly vet potential migrants.
The Turnbull government is considering a tougher vetting system with three assessment points – in the potential migrant’s home country, once they arrive in Australia and upon applying for citizenship.
‘It wouldn’t surprise me that this government would use whatever dog whistle it can against potential refugees, potential migrants to this country,’ Labor senator Doug Cameron told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has called for Australia to drop its immigration numbers from 190,000 to 1110,000 a year
‘Nothing would surprise me what [Home Affairs Minister] Peter Dutton would do.’
Home Affairs department boss Michael Pezzullo told The Daily Telegraph the new assessment procedure would scrutinise people’s previous behaviour to ensure they were honestly answering questions when applying for Australian citizenship.
‘Prior to you even getting citizenship, before you even migrate, the government is looking at how do you make an assessment using intelligence, using all sources of information,’ he said.
He denies it was a way to exclude non-Anglo or non-white people, saying it would embed the Australian values framework in law.
Labor has accused the government of dog-whistle politics as the Home Affairs department considers a new plan to use spies to covertly vet potential migrants