POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION
Australia has a very fragile environment, highly vulnerable to overpopulation and urban sprawl. Excessive population growth causes loss of green space, forests, habitat, and farmland.
It puts additional pressure on scarce water supplies, worsening the risk of drought, especially in major cities.
It increases energy consumption and dependence on fossil fuels, slowing our transition to clean energy.
It increases waste production, and adds to demand for landfill, which is environmentally toxic, while putting additional pressure on recycling systems.
It increases demand for housing, which in major cities is already scarce, driving housing prices even higher.
It worsens pressure on existing infrastructure, such as roads and schools and hospitals.
Overall, it results in worsening environmental degradation and pollution, as well as lower living standards.
Australia needs sustainable growth, balancing economic needs with environmental protection and resource conservation. After all, how can the economy even function properly, when the environment which it rests upon is suffocating under out-of-control growth?
Only a well-managed population policy will ensure sustainable growth in Australia. Only such a policy will improve the quality of life for us all.
Our average immigration intake was around 70,000 per annum until just over 20 years ago. At that time, nobody ever explained why an intake this size was too small. Nobody has ever explained why we needed intakes of over 100,000 in the years since then.
With no serious thought given on where so many new arrivals would live, or whether our natural and urban environments could cope, we have major problems resulting from mismanaged population growth.
We need our immigration intake reduced to 48,000 per annum. It would consist of caps of 16,000 refugees and 32,000 non-humanitarian arrivals. This acknowledges the fact that our refugee intake has not really gone up over the last 20 years or so, and should be preserved.
It would be part of a better-managed population policy, which is essential for our environmental protection and our quality of life.