It is easier to plan with a stable population. That goes for the rest of the world also.

Let's make it easier for the rest of the world to plan by supporting worldwide population plannig programs and worldwide education for women so they can be more than just baby making machines.

We are part of the world, and there is pressure to come into Australia. Denying entry is not enough. We must try to relieve the pressure.

An excellent comprehensive article Eric.

Trouble is, long articles with lots of links and additional reading don't tend to appeal to the OLO fraternity, when there are numerous shorter articles and indeed lots of stuff on the same subject matter on this forum.

The first big step towards genuine sustainability has surely got to be the reduction of immigration progressively towards net zero and the abolition of the disgraceful baby bonus.

The next or concurrent all-important step is to impress upon our powers that be that we are terribly precariously positioned with our dependence on oil and that we need with the greatest of urgency to relieve ourselves of this addiction.

Even the mining industry and every other sector that is contributing to our antisustainability momentum would have to concur with this and be willing to support strong moves to wean ourselves off of oil .... surely!

Fancy that - getting the major sectors that are upholding the continuous growth antisustainability paradigm to actually strongly contribute towards sustainability!

It would be relatively easy to plan for this eventuality, wouldn't it? It would be a lot easier to achieve it with a stable population, but of course we can't wait until we have a stable population to start planning for a sustainable future.

Stable population, or zero population growth with zero immigration is a fallacy. In case you haven't noticed, humans breed like rabbits, and the global population is growing. So in short, yes, it's easier to live in fantasy than it is to live in reality.

Australia is an indefensible continent with only a few million on it, with the riches of King Solomon's mines. What's wrong with that picture in global terms of population versus resources?

We need to embrace the inevitable and to grow from it, developing our infrastructure along the way.

Nationalize our resources and banking...that'll throw a cat amongst the pigeons (he says facetiously). You can plan with what you can control, but you cannot plan with that which you have little to no control over.

Eric, your photo makes you look like the sort of bloke I would not want to meet on a dark night.

How can such a bruiser talk so much sense?

Mindless, now I realise the choice of mane. Your suggestions that we should put our mining & banking sectors in the hands of out typically dithering public servants is certainly reason enough to add Cruelty to any name. Hell, haven't you seen what they can do to a simple school building plan?

This suggestion is probably self defeating in view of your other suggestion that we can not stop population growth.

With these two sectors of our economy in the hands of the bureaucrats, the ensuing failure of that economy would be so complete that no one, even the current asylum seekers, would want to come here.

Hasbeen, I did say I was being facetious. And I wouldn't put anything but toilet-paper into the hands of the Liberals or Labor...or any of the politicians currently. This election is about who will give the mining companies and other large interests what they want, nothing else. It's not about leadership, but the acquisition of office.

We are not voting for good government, but who will have good jobs.

Hasbeen I am a kind and gentle person at all hours of the day and night. I am 2 metres tall and weigh 140 kg, though, so you are not the first and probably won't be the last to make a similar comment.

It will be interesting to see how the Dick Smith program on Channel 2 at 830 is received tonight. I don't think the old "population growth is good for the economy" argument is working very well any more. I'll bet that the Bernard Salt's and Heather Ridout's have got some other ideas though. They get paid too much to just sit there.