Yes it's true, immigration policy has evolved in nearly complete disregard of public opinion.

Thank God.

Readings:

http://elecpress.monash.edu.au/pnp/free/pnpv7n1/v7n1_4hage.pdf

http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i8472.pdf

strayan, "Yes it's true, immigration policy has evolved in nearly complete disregard of public opinion.

Thank God."

Roll on the totalitarian state, eh strayan?

Did you happen to read the article at all or was it just a heaven sent opportunity to dump some links?

BTW, surely you don't expect anyone to download lengthy articles where you haven't even had the courtesy to outline the points you are trying to make - apart from the obvious one, which is your contempt for the public and for democratic processes.

See how easy it is to weed out the people who obviously feel they should get a vote on the level of immigration or whatever it is they happen to be 'worrying' about at the moment.

I'd like to pay no tax but I don't expect to get to have a vote on it. I'm certainly not going to turn to violent political extremism if I don't get my way - which is basically what they author predicts will happen if those with anxieties about immigration don't get urgent help.

Strayan -

It sounds like what you are saying is that representative government shouldn't do what the majority of the people want.

You're analogy about paying taxes doesn't make sense, because the majority don't agree with you. The majority know they have to pay taxes to get services. The majority want less immigration and the governments they elected, don't do what they want. That is a problem with the government. That idea is in opposition to the central tenets of democracy. That is what the article is about.

The two articles you've linked are 11 and 6 years old and neither give even a cursory mention of the environment. They are both articles about how whities hate darkies. The exact same "If you don't like immigration, you are a racist" arguments have been used for years to take the focus off the environment, congestion, higher housing prices and lower wages.

The average Australian does not benefit from high immigration. He gets lower wages and a poorer environment. The high flyers who want to keep wages down and do more real estate deals make money out of high immigration, but the average worker loses. That is one reason why the average guy opposes high immigration.

Population growth can't go on forever. The average voter knows that but the average politician is only thinking in 3 year terms and gets money from the people who want high immigration so instead of doing what the majority want he does what the big money guys tell him to do.

That's wrong.

Of course strayan- because actually trying to justify your beliefs to an actually-democratic public is too much to expect.

Sad but true- we in Australia always hopes big brother will force our beliefs on everyone else instead of trying to argue them ourselves- left AND right.

High rates of immigration and fertility boosters are destroying the world.

Kevin Rudd's vision of Australia with 35 million people being a version of utopia is an example of a tragic delusionary hoax, similar to Bob Hawke's vision of "no child living in poverty".

Instead of an aim of being a sophisticated Denmark of the South Pacific, with Denmark having a stable 5 million people and exporting all over the world, our prime minister wants us to live in a more polluted, debt ridden and environmentally trashed western democracy .

With 22 million people, he can't stop our per capita rising debt, greenhouse gas emmissions, bushland/farmland loss, congestion and decreasing levels of spending on education/research.

Additionally, even with massive asset sales, our national debt has climbed from 8 billion dollars in 1980 to a combined debt of 1 trillion dollars now and increasing by 2 billion dollars a month. This 1 trillion dollars is made up of 300 billion government debt and 670 billion private debt. Much of the private debt comes from banks borrowing overseas to fund household mortgages and lifestyles.

As each Australian on average is consuming more than they are producing, the population growth rate forced on us by Kevin Rudd of 1.2 million people every 3 years, is the driver for unstoppable debt and pollution.

The answer lies in policy settings to encourage two children families at around 30 years of age ( ABS stats state that our birthrate is double our deathrate ), zero net migration ( that equates to a 80,000 intake) and targeted aid to solve world population issues at source.

Ralph Bennett 43 Queenscliff Rd Queenscliff NSW 2096 Ph:0402 335 08