The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > The critical election issue: population > Comments

The critical election issue: population : Comments

By Jenny Goldie, published 12/8/2013

With one or two notable exceptions, our political parties are not acknowledging that population lies at the heart of most issues.

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. ...
  7. 9
  8. 10
  9. 11
  10. All
One can’t help reaching the conclusion that the maintenance of very high immigration by successive governments of both persuasions has everything to do with the pressure applied on government by vested-interest profit-motive-driven big-business…. because after even an initial bit of analysis, it obviously has scant little to do with basic common sense!

I would have thought that if one of the major parties were to declare a policy of much-reduced immigration, it would immediately be on a huge winner with the votership.

The fact that neither big party has ever done this, even when they are facing the almost certain prospect of defeat at a forthcoming election, says everything about how utterly beholden to big business interests and how terribly undemocratic our governmental system is!

I mean, what unbiased government wouldn’t see population stabilisation, an end to massive expansionism and a balance between the demand for everything and the ongoing supply capabilities as being the most fundamentally important foundations of a healthy national future?

So it begs the question: how on earth do we get our government to do this? How do we get Gillard’s ‘sustainable Australia’ to prevail? What do we have to do to get us off this continuous growth spiral into oblivion??

Excellent article Jenny.
Posted by Ludwig, Monday, 12 August 2013 8:18:11 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
To obtain zero net migration, which is laughable, the Australian Government would need to:

1. Set the skilled permanent entry to zero because the loss of Australian citizens is very small. No movement would be permitted onshore to a permanent skilled visa.

2. Stop the 457 visa or limit the stay to under 12 months in which case the visa holder would not be counted into the population. 457 visa holders include a lot of people who operate in an international labour market (multi-national companies moving their staff around the world, academics, persons holding highly specialised skills not available in Australia). This would be like imposing a trade sanction on one’s own country – but if zero economic growth is part of the agenda, then this is a great idea.

3. An international student would be permitted to enter Australia only when another international student had left. Present policy is to encourage international students because this improves the economies of scale in Australian educational institutions and promotes diversity of course offerings in universities. A restrictive policy would see the closure of many Australian universities or at least considerable curtailment of course offerings and staff redundancies.

4. End the Trans-Tasman Travel agreement between Australia and New Zealand or modify it so that a New Zealander could come to Australia only when an Australian went to New Zealand.

Change the Migration Act to make it illegal for Australians to bring their non-Australian spouses to Australia, or to allow this only when someone leaves Australia. Australian citizens would need to be warned not to marry a non-resident of Australia or be prepared to live outside Australia if they do so. Humanitarian immigrants would not be permitted to obtain their spouses from their country of origin. This would mean that potential spouses from those countries would have to join the boat movement.

That's just a handful of some of the absurd problems re the SPP. Don't get me started on those numbers. The real force behind the Australian anti-population push is NumbersUSA and John Tanton in the States
Posted by Cheryl, Monday, 12 August 2013 8:38:15 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
To stabilize our population, immigration needs to equal emigration and there needs to be equitable and reciprocal agreements on immigration levels between nations. There is a large imbalance in Australia's present high levels of net immigration. It's unsustainable environmentally, politically and socially.
It doesn't mean closing down the Immigration Department for family affairs and family reunions such as foreign spouses. That's only a small amount of our intake. Our political parties can't continue to ignore our world-leading population growth rates. "Economic growth" through immigration is poor policy as the costs of growth, downstream, always outweigh the benefits in the long term. Rising population, on the background of increasing poverty, homelessness, unaffordable housing, increasing unemployment and debt for infrastructure is madness. Already our planet's resources are dwindling. Left to "natural" growth, our population would continue to grow, but stabilize and gently decline towards mid-century. This corresponds to natural constraints and the most sensible option.
Posted by VivienneO, Monday, 12 August 2013 9:17:05 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Thanks Cheryl. I think we all know your distraction game, and who you are!

Jenny Goldie rightly says, "Only those parties and candidates who are aware of these constraints on population growth and have policies to match are worthy of our vote."

That clearly rules out not just the two major parties, but the Greens, for the reasons set out by Michael Lardelli in his excellent Online Opinion article "Can we trust the Greens on Population" at http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10873

Thanks heavens we have the newly formed Stable Population Party, whose website slices through the nonsense talked by the major parties. See http://www.populationparty.org.au/ I understand it will be contesting for the Senate in all states, and voters can vote for it either above the line or below.
Posted by Livio, Monday, 12 August 2013 9:27:37 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Dear Jenny,

<< With one or two notable exceptions, our political parties are not acknowledging that population lies at the heart of most issues. >>

That is because the Australian public also disagrees with you. No 1, the economy, No 2 Boat People.

The Population issue is just another facet of the “Peak Everything” debate with its foundations in the Club of Rome and Agenda 21, or as we have come to know it, Socialism by stealth.

It warms my heart to recognize that after 60 years it remains a failed dogma. Since the CAGW debate is founded upon the political interpretation of “sustainability”, it too is failing.

The MO for progressive activism globally remains the same, take the most horrendously complex socio-scientific-economic issues on the planet, oversimplify them and then offer oversimplified populist solutions.

The Peak everything and CAGW are classic examples. The climate change and sustainable population issues are so complex that modeling, assumptions and predictions have become the norm.

The number of entities that any meaningful analysis would need to map runs into the tens of thousands. These would be different for every national, regional, economic, socio-political, scientific and religious variables on the planet.

But just like Jenny, this can all be pushed on one side to make room for a much more simplistic political ideology.

The mere fact that this is still being thrown around like the proverbial dead cat is testimony to three things, one that you don’t really have a clue where to start, two that this is just a political agenda and three, that there are still gullible people in society today, who are prepared to sacrifice the last vestiges of reality for political populism.

It may be appropriate at some stage to recognize that for 60 years “political sustainability” has prevented real human ingenuity from flourishing and making real progress on global equity and social justice.

It is your ideology and political naďveté that is negatively impacting those who need the shackles of poverty removed, but you can’t see it through your political mantra. What you seek to avoid, you create.
Posted by spindoc, Monday, 12 August 2013 10:16:15 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Jenny, we can't live in splendid isolation from the rest of the world.
The good old days of Australia being a sleepy island that just gets on with its own affairs are well and truly over.

Australia is part of the wider world community, and as such needs to take ownership of immigrants on the move from conflict and overcrowding in other countries.

If Australia decided to close the borders and not let anyone in unless someone leaves, how would the rest of the world react? They would be annoyed, to say the least.
Trade and goodwill with our neighbours would go out the door, and conflict may well reach our own borders as a result.

What makes Australia so special that we do not have to participate in sharing the population problems of the world?
It's not as though we haven't got any room.
Why not deal with the problem of immigration to our advantage?

We should take more immigrants in, but try to settle more of them in towns that desperately need more people. Maybe we could even save some towns from losing services like schools, banks and shops, and ending up as ghost towns.
Posted by Suseonline, Monday, 12 August 2013 10:32:47 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. ...
  7. 9
  8. 10
  9. 11
  10. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy