It’s growth rate, not size that matters

It’s growth rate, not size, that matters
November 14, 2010 – 12:39PM

The federal opposition says the size of Australia’s population in the coming decades is irrelevant provided it comes about as the result of sustainable growth.

A Treasury briefing prepared for Prime Minister Julia Gillard states that even if net migration is reduced to 180,000 people a year, the population would reach 36 million by 2050.

If it was slashed to an unrealistic 60,000, the population would hit 29 million by 2050.
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Opposition population spokesman Scott Morrison said on Sunday the coalition was never in the “zero population growth camp” but wanted sustainable growth.

“It’s all about the rate of growth,” he told ABC TV.

“Whatever (population) figure that turns up to be in 2050 or 2070 or 2030 will be what it will be.

“What the Australian people need to be comfortable about is that we’re running a migration program that firstly is focused on our skills needs and secondly is not delivering a rate of population growth that cannot be sustained.”

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd was a believer in big Australia but one of the first things Julia Gillard did after seizing the leadership was to voice support for a “sustainable population”.

She steered clear of suggesting what that might be in numbers.

During this year’s election campaign Opposition Leader Tony Abbott pledged to cut immigration to 170,000 places from a recent peak of 300,000 in its first term of government.

But Labor argued that net migration was going to drop to 175,000 this financial year anyway and 145,000 in 2011-12.

smh.com.au