Immigration Needed if Australia Wants to Stay Competitive

Two key government advisers and the nation’s leading demographer have warned that the nation’s “big Australia” debate has now entered dangerous territory and pressed the case for higher immigration to keep the economy strong.

Peter McDonald, head of the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, said yesterday the current political discourse linking high immigration rates to inflated house prices and congestion in the big cities risked a damaging reversion to Hansonism.

Professor McDonald was backed by former key government adviser and population economist Glenn Withers, who said the tone of the debate had “the potential for becoming dangerous”, while Infrastructure Australia head Rod Eddington said he was in favour of a “robust immigration program”.

Business leaders yesterday warned of the risks of any move to use population pressures as a reason to scale back on immigration numbers, saying they were crucial to future economic growth.

Sir Rod, appointed by the Labor government to chair Infrastructure Australia, said: “I’m broadly in favour of a robust ongoing immigration program given that the hunt for talent is a global hunt and we want as many good people as we can sensibly fit in.

“(Migration has) been one of the reasons why Australia has succeeded in the past. We shouldn’t turn a blind eye to that fact.”

The full article is here, from The Australian.