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The Forum > Article Comments > Half used continent > Comments

Half used continent : Comments

By Everald Compton, published 6/2/2014

How we failed to build a balanced nation

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Everald, your < key issues for planners > are all geared towards massive expansionism.

Sorry, but this is exactly what we DON’T need!

What we need is to balance the needs of our population with the ability of this continent to provide them. This requires as the most important thing a stabilisation of our population, NOT continuous rapid growth, NOT the massive growth of many regional cities and NOT an ever-rapidly-increasing demand for all manner of resources, goods, services and infrastructure.

< The bottom line is that Australia is a long way from being a nation of balanced development. >

No. The bottom line should be, and indeed MUST be; a balance between the demand for everything that we need to maintain a decent quality of life and the ability for this continent, and our ingenuity, to meet that demand, in an ongoing manner.

It has surely GOT to be all about us achieving a sustainable society, and NOT about fostering never-ending expansionism.

To this end, we should be looking at what developments are needed to reach a balance between demand and sustainable supply capability.

Some development of the sorts that you envisage would be appropriate. But we MUST start heading towards a stable population as well.
Posted by Ludwig, Thursday, 6 February 2014 8:07:14 AM
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All very nice, but where would the money come from? We are broke. We have been broken by the very politicians who are supposed to look after the country, and pursue some of the good things suggested. It's all pie in the sky stuff. It will never happen. And we certainly do not need any more people.
Posted by NeverTrustPoliticians, Thursday, 6 February 2014 8:13:06 AM
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It's a very anthropocentric mentality to think that any land without housing, myriad of roads crossing it, and industries, is being "wasted", "un-used" and "empty". There are many biological and ecological services happening on our land, and most of our endangered animals live in burrows and trees. Already Australia is a leading biological exterminator!
Australia is largely desert, with irregular rainfall, hot climates that are set to increase in intensity and extreme weather events due to climate change. There are constraints to any growth, and Australia is being overloaded by population. Only 6% of our soils are arable. Rather than un-used, we are being forced to accommodate rapid population growth due to megalomaniac politicians with their growth-addictive policies - and the constraints to urbanisation are obvious and being ignored. The dizzy heights of Parliamentary power is blinding them to on the ground realities of Australia as largely a desert nation with a green fringe!
Posted by VivienneO, Thursday, 6 February 2014 8:15:48 AM
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One of the more unrealistic and pessimistic op eds I've read on OLO. It completely ignores settlement patterns and the extraordinary contribution that migrants made to Australia after WW2.

It completely ignores the incredible strength of our economy since the mid 80s and is a classic doom and gloom piece. By any measure, Australia is one of the leading nations per capita in the world. It is hampered by some ridiculous Federalist ideas but we're not alone there.

I'm sure Everard means well but if I remember rightly, he is all for raising the aged pension age to 70. Flay those oldies, Everard! And that's from the chairman of the Mature Age Consultative Forum. As they say in The Producers, 'Don't help. No honestly, don't help'.
Posted by Malcolm 'Paddy' King, Thursday, 6 February 2014 9:11:42 AM
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Everald, another thing that Captain Cook wouldn't have thought of is the move by Imperial America to gain control of the world purely for its own benefit.

Australia, in 2014, is already largely controlled and directed by the U.S.. It is used by the U.S. Armed Forces as part of their spying network while American troops march on parts of our soil and their navies use out ports and they launch drones from our airfields (although this is not officially verified).

Australia keeps nations in our region at arms length for fear it might upset the U.S. in its various greed-driven 'Pivots' and 'Containments'.

Everald, I did enjoy your article and it contains much commonsense, something that is totally lacking in the current leadership of Australia (I use the word 'leadership' very loosely).

Australia will never evolve or achieve greatness while it is caught in the American web and being manipulated by the world's biggest warmonger and imperialist!
Posted by David G, Thursday, 6 February 2014 9:13:24 AM
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Everald,
I agree with you totally up to the point of a return to a focus on rail transport and phasing out of (especially) long distance road transport.
As to your 1950’s vision of turning rivers inland, massive population increase etc, I am afraid you are sadly disillusioned. Have you read about Cloncurry? They are going to evacuate the whole town because they have run out of water!
Australia already has three times the population that can be supported without the profligate use of fossil fuels and other resources.
We need to stop all immigration from any source and concentrate on living within our means
Posted by Imperial, Thursday, 6 February 2014 11:52:29 AM
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Ludwig and Imperial,

Do you think voting for Tim Lawrence from the Stable Population Party in the Griffith by-election is the right way to go? Less people and all that?
Posted by Malcolm 'Paddy' King, Thursday, 6 February 2014 12:26:21 PM
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Everald,

You have begun with a basic mistake, as Captain Cook did not claim Australia for the British Crown.

In consideration of the fact that the Pope in 1494 had divided the world between the Spanish and the Portuguese along the line of 129 degrees east longitude, he only claimed the land east of 135 deg east longitude. He declined to claim any of the Portuguese area as Portugal was Britain's oldest ally. It wasn't until 1829 that Captain Fremantle claimed the bit west of 129 deg that became Western Australia.

In this he worked better than he knew, as it acted to set up Australia as a federation, not a unitary nation. The federal and state politicians could spend all their time fighting each other, and not have much energy over to interfere too much. We ended up with our federal constitution, (which the people refuse to amend), which has been one of the most successful constitutions in the world, as well as being the fourth or fifth oldest.

This magnificent process has been greatly helped by the people, who regularly ensure that whatever party is elected to a majority in the lower house will not have a majority in the upper. Recognising that whichever party is elected, the government is still the enemy of the people, they have ensured that the power to do anything important is spread over a broad spectrum of people, thus protecting us from egomaniacs.

Thank heavens we have been spared from the proposal to change to a republic. If this were to come about, the people would have to elect a president from a different political party than that of the Prime Minister. Remembering that each would have the power to dismiss each other, the model would have to be labelled the Congolese model, with equivalent results.

Three cheers for Captain Cook!
Posted by plerdsus, Thursday, 6 February 2014 3:27:35 PM
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Malcolm,
Definitely, SPP are the only sane political party in Australia
Posted by Imperial, Thursday, 6 February 2014 4:37:13 PM
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Hmmm, yes, I thought so.

But me thinks Griffith voters probably don't know Stable Population Party (SPP) candidate, Timothy Lawrence, is also an electronic games developer for the gambling industry. That's not very PC - if you'll forgive the pun.

He also lives in Taringa, which is not in the electorate of Griffith.

My research has shown that the anti-population and no growth groups, such as the SSP have their roots deep in to social engineering and anti-immigration measures. They believe society is a circuit board with simple inputs and outputs. People are units of consumption and babies are ‘carbon emitters’ and a threat to the planet.

The SPP believes the human race will only survive if we devolve capitalism and population back to the time of their founding father, the Rev Thomas Malthus in the late 1700s.

Good luck with that.
Posted by Malcolm 'Paddy' King, Thursday, 6 February 2014 6:07:41 PM
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Whilst I agree with curbing poulation I also think that by increasing non-uni education we could do a lot more for the environment. Imagine a less stupid population, one that works together for the common good. I also strongly agree with Vivienne O's statement re very anthropocentric mentality
Posted by individual, Thursday, 6 February 2014 7:36:45 PM
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"State Governments would be created and they would do their utmost not to co-operate with one another"

Right, six governments have been such a problem.
Your solution? Create 50 of them!

"they had only one Viceroy in India who ran the whole show."

And at first, we had one Governor.
The Governor of NSW, a *single* colony which covered the entire territory claimed in 1770.

"There would be scant recognition that Asian nations are our closest neighbours, with vast populations, who need the goods and services we can provide"

Right, there'll be plenty of Australian-made goods flooding into Asia.

I can just see their equivalent of Kmart now: Everything is "Made in Australia". LOL!

"we are too petrified to lose our links with the Queen of England"

Well, if you wanted close links with "Asia", maybe it should have been Captain Wu Li Sung standing on Possession Island.
It wasn't.

Newsflash: Most of Asia is on the other side of the planet too.
Look up Australia on Google Earth.
They are no more our "neighbours" than anywhere else.

We didn't develop close links with Asia because until very recently they were as poor as Africa, and even now only a few countries have developed to equal European production/living standards/per capita wealth.

"and too frightened to live without the protection of USA."

Oh, yeah, I'd really feel safer under the "protection" of Tibet-invading, student-massacring China!

"I could list more, but it would be too depressing."

It would also be too pathetic.

Oh, and here's Malcolm 'Paddy' King trying to hijack another thread to pummel SPP.
Yawn!
Posted by Shockadelic, Thursday, 6 February 2014 7:45:27 PM
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Dear Padraic King, there you go again launching another load of your loony lambasting of SPP.

But why? What’s it really got to do with this thread??

SPP is certainly the sanest political party in Aus.

Setting SPP aside, what do you make of my first post? Particularly the imperative of balancing population and everything that is needed to support it with our capabilities of supplying those needs in an ongoing manner?

Everald, for all his good intentions, seems to keep missing this point in his long series of OLO articles.

So what do you think – should we maintain high immigration and strive for constant expansionism or head towards a stable population and strive to stop expanding our impact and resource demand on this already very stressed continent?
Posted by Ludwig, Thursday, 6 February 2014 7:53:58 PM
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...Hasn't anybody told you Everald, this is 1954 not 2014. Get real! By the left Abbott...Quick march...Hay foot, straw foot, hay foot, straw foot...!
Posted by diver dan, Thursday, 6 February 2014 8:42:10 PM
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Hi Everald,

Yes, what we need is a federal government that that will grow the economy to generate the wealth that grows tax revenue so we can spend some of it on infrastructure.

We need policies that reduce risk for private investment in order to build things with less public money.
We need excellent foreign relations in order to co-exist and trade with our neighbors.
We need to control immigration so that population growth can be matched to economic growth.
We need all States to collaborate in the interests of all Australians.
We need a federal government that is dedicated to smaller government and less market interference.
We need a government that supports the development of more productive land through more dams and large scale irrigation.
We need to develop other regions of Australia to create well paid work to make it attractive to live outside major cities and further develop regional infrastructure.

You didn’t need to go far to formulate such idea’s, we already have them in the LNP policy platforms
Posted by spindoc, Friday, 7 February 2014 9:19:38 AM
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Abbott...Quick march...Hay foot, straw foot,
diver dan,
Well, I personally prefer it to the ALP's Hare brain-straw-brain.
Posted by individual, Friday, 7 February 2014 6:07:13 PM
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What Everald demonstrates is the total disconnect between government
and reality with regards to our energy future.
Like politicians, people connected to government must also believe in
the "Business as Usual" syndrome.

Without knowing it he is right in two of his wish list.
There inevitably will be a shift to rail transport.
Diesel (or natural gas) locomotives move eight times the ton/km of trucks.
Electrification for high traffic routes is probably desirable.
Gauge unification is probably too late and I doubt we will ever have
the capital necessary to do it.
The division of state governments into local council regions will
almost certainly occur as everything becomes local.

It is quite possible that state governments will become redundant and
the Federal government will retreat into defense and foreign affairs.
This of course is much more into the future than Everald is considering.

Everald's wish list cannot be undertaken in a country with low and
falling growth. The whole world is moving towards zero growth and no
planner should ignore that or inevitably his plans will come to nothing.
However the whole energy problem is moving rapidly and later this
year or early next year we will see figures that it will be hard for
governments to ignore.

If Everald reads these responses I suggest that he obtain BITRE177
report which was suppressed by the government but was downloaded by
a French journalist at Le Mond before government ministers were out
of bed and placed onto the ASPO Australia web site.
BITRE = Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport, Resources & Energy
I think it is part Dept Minerals and Energy.

http://www.aspo-australia.org.au/

Look for this heading;
Transport Energy Futures: Long-term oil supply trends and projections
Report 117 BITRE 2009 Dr David Gargett

Within that paragraph there are three links to the document.
ASPO was "asked" to take the document off their website.

The document is very detailed but the conclusion is clear.
Posted by Bazz, Sunday, 9 February 2014 12:39:34 PM
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Great post
Agree with every point, bravo!
Sadly, that kind of vision is for now at least beyond Australians. We have become so small minded, fearful of all kinds of phantoms, stupid and unless some US business magazine or US think tank says something is a good idea it won't be taken seriously.

All the naysayers come up with the lamest objections. Unimaginable quantities of fresh water each year wash out to sea. So there is enough water, if it is managed. The economic and environmental benefits are extraordinary.

But as you say, we are too busy protecting our borders from Iraq and Afghanistani refugees coming across in boats to exact their revenge for destroying their country
Posted by YEBIGA, Monday, 10 February 2014 10:09:44 AM
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