A respectful conversation, free from racism and slurs of racism, is needed
about Australia’s population and immigration settings
The lack of transparency by organisers of the March for Australia has led to understandable concerns about its connection to neo-Nazi and other far right groups. The result is confusion and wariness of the march by fair-minded Australians who are nonetheless concerned about the extraordinary levels of population growth in Australia in recent decades.
Unfortunately, the March for Australia has provided perfect fodder for the promoters of Big Australia to claim any opposition to high immigration is racist and xenophobic. Those promoting population expansion seek to suffocate any questioning of immigration settings, leaving such decisions to business lobbyists, ministers and bureaucrats behind closed doors. Polarising the debate in this way ignores the vast majority of Australians (repeated polls show 70%) who oppose further population growth. There is no more sure-fire way to drive people to political extremes than to dismiss sensible and respectful debate about Australia’s population future. This risk is clearly seen in a drift to the far right in the USA and many European nations where people oppose immigration-fed population pressures.
Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) has a proud record over nearly four decades, of advocating for a middle ground where Australians can have a conversation about population and immigration settings, free from racism and slurs of racism, and supportive not only of human rights but also the rights of nature.
For many years, SPA has issued warnings, backed by evidence, about the costs of population growth to the environment and the economy, which struggles to deliver infrastructure, housing, water, health and social services to meet the needs of a growing population. The evidence is clear that population numbers matter, scale matters and rates of growth matter. Since around 2004, Australia has been subjected to one of the highest population growth rates in the developed world.
These population pressures raise mounting public concerns in Australia. The simplest way to reduce these tensions is to progressively slow the population growth rate and ultimately bring Australia to a stable population size under 30 million.
The social-democratic government in Denmark has shown how to neutralise the far right by engaging with community concerns about immigration, rather than ignoring them. If only Australia’s political class could learn from Denmark’s example and begin a more inclusive and democratic process for deciding Australia’s population future.