Populate and perish
In the chummy confines of The National Press Club, Population Minister Alan Tudge (“Inner Sydney fast growing before COVID”, August 29-30) can burble about a speedy return to the “normal” of “fast population growth”. It’s not “normal”. It’s a radical imposition on the electors and the environment. Australia’s historical average for annual net migration is lower than 80,000. The post-2005 average is more than twice that number. Akin to a giant Ponzi, it is a manipulation of mass migration. Victoria was the state most dependent on a “big Australia”. That stage-prop gone, it’s no surprise – notwithstanding the pandemic crisis – that its economy lags all other states.