The recent appointment of Australia’s first ever Population Minister is a clear indication of the far reaching implications that the continuing growth of our nation will have.
Tony Burke, who also holds the Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Portfolio, was appointed as the Minister in early April. His role over the next 12 months is to develop Australia’s first comprehensive population strategy.
The move comes following a Treasury forecast that Australia’s population will grow by more than 50 per cent to reach 36 million people by the year 2050.
These figures have caused some debate among political commentators.
Minister Burke has stated that the figures are just a prediction – not a target, goal or ambition – and that the population strategy will ensure that the Government plans for a sustainable level of growth.
But, the Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has called for tighter migration laws, claiming that 29 million people would be a more manageable number. He believes Australia is growing too fast, at the rate of one extra person every 70 seconds, and is on track for a population of 42 million by 2050 under the current Government’s policies.
The current population is 22 million.
Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown said Minister Burke should look at cutting skilled migration and increasing overseas aid to help keep Australia’s population below the predicted 36 million people by 2050.
“Australia should be investing in training its own skilled workers and exporting more to other countries,” he said. “It is not fair for us to be taking skilled workers from poorer countries. Skilled workers help raise standards of living and so lower population growth in their own countries.”
Together with Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Scott Morrison, Senator Brown has called for an inquiry into population growth, and has recommended that the issues be put on the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) agenda.
Regardless of the exact figure, all parties seem to agree that sustainability is the main concern.
For Local Government, this will be particularly relevant.
While councils and employers in regional areas will welcome immigrants to fill skill shortages, there needs to be some way of ensuring that new residents settle here and not add to the sprawl in our major cities.
In addition, councils must provide the multitude of services for the settlement of new arrivals, and with the existing population ageing, there will be a number of increased service delivery challenges that councils will face.
This will be on top of infrastructure maintenance and renewal demands that are already under great pressure, as well as providing new infrastructure to accommodate the growth.
With these serious implications on the cards, Local Government must join the call for the issue to be put on the COAG agenda to ensure it is included in the debate and resultant policies.
