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.

Immigration Helps Australia Grow

Recent figures show that the Australian population is growing at a strong rate, which can mainly be attributed to immigration

Recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that Australia's population is growing at its fastest rate in nearly 20 years. Records show that the number of people living in Australia has increased to 21.374 million as of June 30th this year. This is an increase of 359,000 (1.7 percent) from the previous year.

59 percent of the growth can be attributed directly to immigration, with the Government's successful migration program enabling more foreign nationals to live and work in Australia.

Western Australia still continues to record the fastest growth at 2.7 per cent. This is primarily due to the mining industry which has been central to the economic boom of the state over the last ten years.

Queensland and Northern Territory both recorded a 2.3 percent growth, while Victoria had 1.8 percent. ACT grew at 1.3 percent, South Australia and New South Wales had 1.1 percent, and Tasmania experienced a 1 percent growth.
From: www.future-concern.com

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