Posts to Aug 23, 2016

By Unconventional Economist in Australian Economyat 9:22 am on August 23, 2016
By Leith van Onselen
One of the most profound changes affecting the Australian economy and society over the past 12 years has been the massive lift in Australia’s net immigration, which surged from the mid-2000s and is running at roughly twice the pace of long-run norms (see next chart).

With much of this immigration flowing into the two major cities – Sydney and Melbourne – whose populations have ballooned:

It is this massive increase in population that is the key reason why many of us living in the major cities are stuck in traffic, cannot get a seat on the train, are experiencing crowded hospitals and schools, and cannot afford a home.
The population influx has simply overwhelmed our cities’ infrastructure and services. And the plan from all sides of politics – the Coalition, Labor and the Greens – is to continue the policy of high immigration without the commensurate investment to cope with the influx.
For a major commodity exporter like Australia, which pays its way in the world by selling-off its fixed endowment of resources, ongoing high immigration is also self-defeating from an economic standpoint. That is, continually adding more people to the population year after year means less resources per capita. It also means that Australia must sell-off its fixed assets quicker just to maintain a constant standard of living (other things equal).
The net result of this Big Australia policy is that living standards are being eroded as the capacity of the economy and infrastructure to absorb all of the extra people is overwhelmed, and the country’s natural resources base is diluted among more people.
Despite these inconvenient truths, there are still many commentators that champion Australia’s word-beating immigration program.
We got a taste of this view yesterday by The ABC’s Tom Switzer, who penned a piece in Fairfax claiming that John Howard deserves praise for cracking down on refugees as it allowed him to significantly ramp-up economic migration into Australia:
The facts reveal the Pacific Solution has done more for immigrants and refugees than open door advocates ever imagined…
Simply put, tough border protection not only discourages people from making perilous journeys on the high seas. It also, crucially, boosts public confidence in a large-scale, non-discriminatory migration program…
Implicit in Howard’s advocacy of border controls was a truly sound belief that mass migration is conditional on government control over “who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come”, as he put it in 2001…
Just look at the record. With Howard’s policy of offshore processing, unauthorised boat arrivals largely stopped. At the same time, the rate of legal, non-discriminatory immigration doubled…
Let’s get a few things straight.
First, it was the sleight of hand by John Howard that originally mislead the Australian people on immigration. Howard effectively performed a ‘bait-and-switch’ on the Australian people whereby he slammed the door shut on the relatively small number of refugees arriving into Australia by boat all the while stealthily shoving open the door to economic migrants arriving here by plane.
Howard never explicitly mentioned that he was in favour of high immigration because he knew the electorate would be against it. Instead, he scapegoated refugees to give the impression that he was stemming the migrant inflow while proceeding in secret with his ‘Big Australia’ plan.
Unfortunately, rather than being honest with the electorate, the Rudd/Gillard Governments and the Abbott/Turnbull Governments continued the subterfuge. There has never been any community consultation, any national discussion, or mandate to proceed with turbo-charged levels of immigration.
This comes despite an Essential Research opinion poll released in May revealing that the overwhelming majority of Australians (59%) believed “the level of immigration into Australia over the last ten years has been too high”,  more than double the 28% of Australians that disagreed with that statement.

Second, the claim that the Australian Government has control over “who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come” is questionable.
The system surrounding so-called skilled and student visas has been corrupted, with widespread rorting and fraud revealed by the recent joint ABC-Fairfax investigation (see Australia’s hidden people smuggling scandal), leading to claims the system has been overtaken by “crooks and criminals”.
When combined with the Turnbull Government’s policy allowing 6 year-olds and their guardians visa entry into Australia’s primary schools (and allowing them to purchase established property), along with the proposal to allow migrants to bring into Australia their elderly parents (thus further straining Australia’s healthcare system and infrastructure), it is clear that Australia’s “skills-based” immigration system is a farce.
Worse, because of this dysfunctional policy, Australia is on track to double its population by 2050 to more than 40 million people, despite virtually no discussion or mandate for this dramatic change, nor any plan on how to cope with this growth.
It would be nice if politicians examined the facts, and gauged the community’s views, before pursuing the current high population (immigration) growth strategy. This way, Australia might not have been left with an “infrastructure emergency”, housing affordability problems on a grand scale, and falling livability.
Australia desperately needs a frank and honest national conversation about population policy, which focuses on whether or not immigration is benefiting the living standards of the existing population. Not the current ‘smoke and mirrors’ approach that conflates immigration with refugees, or the divisive “Hansonites vs progressives”.
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Australian Wildlife Conservancy has submitted a plan to the Queensland Government to invest more than $3 million in the conservation of Diamantina and Astrebla Downs National Parks in western Queensland. If agreed, this historic initiative will be the largest ever philanthropic investment in Queensland national parks.
It is proposed that the investment be delivered through an innovative public-private partnership across the two national parks, covering in total 700,000 hectares.

• Under the proposal, AWC staff will work in collaboration with Queensland National Parks and Wildlife staff to deliver land management and science programs at both parks.
• The proposed model is unique: the first public-private collaboration of its kind designed to harness the combined strengths of the public and private (non-profit) conservation models. (There is no change in the tenure of either national park or the legislative responsibilities of the QPWS.)

A feature of the plan will be targeted measures, including feral animal control, designed to increase populations of key threatened and declining species including the Bilby, the Kowari and the Night Parrot.

• Legendary naturalist, John Young, will be deployed to help identify and protect Night Parrot populations. John Young, now working for AWC, rediscovered the Night Parrot in 2013, more than 100 years after the last living specimen was collected.  John Young is still the only living person to have discovered a population of Night Parrots.
• Bilby conservation measures will build on Queensland’s existing feral cat control measures at Astrebla Downs. The potential for establishing Queensland’s largest feral cat-free area, utilising conservation fencing, is currently subject to a risk assessment as part of the plan.  A large feral-cat free area would double the Bilby population in Queensland.

The Federal Government has announced an investment of $1.2 million toward delivery of the partnership.
Establishment of a field research centre at Diamantina will support increased scientific activity across both parks, helping to inform future management strategies. Additional infrastructure for interpretative material will add to the visitor experience in Diamantina.
Details of the proposed partnership are currently being developed and considered by Queensland Government officials and AWC staff.

Saturday, 13th February, was the 250th anniversary of the birth of English population pioneer, Rev Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) who warned of the dire consequences of population growth.
Sustainable Population Australia (SPA), has issued a Media release to highlight Malthus’s birthday and notes that with the world population of 7.4 billion still growing at more than 80 million a year, it is time the focus was placed on population control.
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(For Review of Thomas Robert Malthus’s work and life click here; to go to the Media Release from Sustainable Population Australia click here)

Results of a significant survey showing that most Australians (a clear 51%) do not want population growth have been released today.
Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) president, Sandra Kanck, says this new survey sheds light on an increasingly controversial topic.
‘We now have solid evidence that government and business are not listening to Australian voters on the subject of population growth,’ Ms Kanck said.

November 14, 2015,
​Bill Ryerson from the Population Media Centre (PLC) visited Perth and delivered the seminar “How Soap Operas can change the world”.  For an example of the work Bill is involved in and a brief description of how ‘Soap Operas’  started, download the article by HANNA ROSIN ​ or visit their website at (https://www.populationmedia.org )

September 24, 2015 1.27pm AEST
Less water, less waste and more local goods: how 21st-century leadership can be sustainable
Ian Lowe Emeritus Professor, School of Science, Griffith University

Thursday 17th September, 2015
Rapid population growth – the Witches Hats claim another casualty.
The Hon Kelvin Thomson, Federal Member for Wills

Thursday July 30, 2015 AT 05:00 AM PDT
Catholic Nun Explains Pro-Life In A Way That Will Stun Many (Especially Republican Lawmakers)
by Leslie Salzillo