The Australian Immigration Crisis, By James Reed
While in the longer term, there is as Elon Musk has said, a global birth dearth crisis, this crisis runs parallel for the short term with the mass immigration crisis, as seen in Australia. It is a question of contemporary limits. Australia's population is growing at a rate of 13,148 people per week, with migration accounting for 80 percent of this growth. While we have at the blog, focussed upon the accommodation crisis produced by this planned invasion of people, there are also looming environmental issues posed as well, which the group Sustainable Population Australia has been addressing. It had previously released a position paper which was supported by Dick Smith, and now has a petition going. "SPA's petition puts out a call to say 'no' to a Big Australia and 'yes' to an Australia where everyone can afford a place to live, where children can find a classroom to study and where the environment is not continually being degraded by population expansion."
I am not big on environmentalism, it being taken over by the Left, and as seen with the Australian Greens actually waning more, not less immigration, perhaps as an eco-death wish, being the kings and queens of woke. Nevertheless, the petition is worth signing. Really though, this can only be fought by voters taking a stand, by general strikes and street marches as in Europe. If we remain weak, we will continue to get rolled, which to date has been a characteristic of Australian history; not the "lucky country," but the "done over country."
"Australia's population is growing at an "eye-watering" pace of 13,148 people per week, with immigration accounting for more than 80 per cent of the record increase.
That's sparked calls from a policy lobby group for radical reforms to "stabilise" the nation's population to avoid a series of economic, environmental and health and wellbeing crises.
Earlier this year, Sustainable Population Australia released a position statement supported by prominent Australians like millionaire entrepreneur Dick Smith and academic Professor Ian Lowe, that has since attracted 12,000 signatures from everyday people.
Peter Strachan, national president of the lobby group SPA, said the document has become "the prime tool people can use to show how they feel about excessive population growth".
"Australians see no benefit to their quality of life following Australia's 8.2 million or 43 per cent population growth since the year 2000," Mr Strachan said.
At the current level of growth, an additional 4200 dwellings are needed each week to keep pace, but the number being built is 1000 less than that.
Diana Mousina, deputy chief economist at AMP, agreed the record increase in immigration was adding to housing market pressures.
"Demand for housing is running well above supply," Ms Mousina said.
"Housing demand is tracking at around 220,000 per year but dwelling completions, which are indicative of housing supply, [were about] 175,000 in 2023.
"Current building approvals, which are a sign of future completions, are running close to an annualised figure of 160,000, which means the outlook for housing supply remains very challenging, despite the government targets to lift housing supply."
That housing shortfall will continue to add pressure to the already tight rental market, which is evident in ultra-low vacancy rates and skyrocketing price growth.
But Ms Mousina said the pace of net migration "is unlikely to continue at its current rate because the increase in temporary arrivals reflects a catch-up after the pandemic".
Australia's average annual population growth rate is forecast to slow to 1.1 per cent over the coming 40 years. That's down on the 1.4 per cent annual average over the past four decades.
On top of that, demographer Liz Allen from the POLIS Centre for Social Policy Research at the Australian National University said household structures are changing too.
"More people are living alone, and the number of people in each household on average is declining," Ms Allen wrote in analysis for The Conversation.
"A close examination of Australia's demography helps contextualise the country's housing mismatch."
A brewing political war
The SPA has launched a campaign that calls for policies to cap Australia's population at 30 million or less to "support better availability of housing and social infrastructure".
The country's population is currently sitting at an estimated 26.82 million people and is projected to hit 45 million by 2070.
"SPA's petition puts out a call to say 'no' to a Big Australia and 'yes' to an Australia where everyone can afford a place to live, where children can find a classroom to study and where the environment is not continually being degraded by population expansion."
The group believes the population debate is being stifled by claims those opposed to "a big Australia" are racist or anti-migrant.
And it predicts population will be the main election issue at the next federal election, due to be held in 2025."
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