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View all search resultsComment: Smokescreen in the Australian election
Aug
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A
ug. 21, p. 6: Controlling migration intake has become one of three top political issues in the run-up to Saturday’s election here, along with climate change and education. Swinging radically from his previous position, coalition opposition leader Tony Abbott said he would reduce the number of immigrants from the current level of 300,000 to 170,000 in his first term in government if elected. Incumbent Prime Minister Julia Gillard promised a far-reaching solution by stopping people from leaving foreign shores and setting up an offshore regional processing center. The two leaders have been under fire for using the vague term “sustainable” population policy in their speeches. (By Harry Bhaskara, Brisbane)
Your comments:
Australia is the driest continent with some of the oldest (and least fertile) soils in the world. Simply dividing X population by Y area and concluding that Australia can take a lot more people is an overly simplistic argument.
Remember that Australia still manages to export beef to Indonesia and wheat to the world while its natural resources, principally its rivers, have been degraded. So yes, maybe more people, and less beef to Indonesia, less wheat to the world.
Russia has restricted its wheat exports and look at what happened to the price.
John
Makassar
The writer is being selective and inaccurate with his figures. Australia has one of the highest rates of immigration in the world. It also has one of the highest rates of acceptance of refugees in the world.
Indonesia, on the other hand, does not accept immigrants or refugees and the high population growth is one of the reasons for its failure to advance the welfare of the people. A successful family planning program in Indonesia along the lines of China would see a marked improved in educational opportunities and economic advancement.
The people of Australia want a steady growth in population, including migrants, so as not to overburden the infrastructure and to maintain a high standard of living.
Peter
Kuta, Bali
Have a look at this chart of the net migration rate of Australia compared to the other OECD countries (thanks to Google public data explorer):
www.ozmigration.com/home/Posts/Elections-and-Migration.
The net yearly migration rate into Australia has not changed by more than a few percent in either direction for the last 30 years regardless of the political party in power or the public sentiment at the time.
Rather, there is a clear trend of strong positive growth.
RT
Australia
