The question is, where and when will it all stop.

I guess Australia might seem like the land of milk and honey, especially our welfare system.

Already housing affordability is beyond the reach of people like myself, waiting lists in public hospitals are getting longer and longer.

Paradoxically our Federal government wants to reduce green house gas emissions, and at the same increase the population size of Australia, I guess they can fit a square peg into a round hole.

The costs for a larger population are why they are talking up big massive cities to thrive and to accept the death of regional Australia. Without mining there would be nothing outside the big cities. Even in mining towns there is no investment in community. Housing prices are too high for non-mine workforce and the towns quite shabby. The money earned is taken back to town by FIFO workforce. Agriculture workforce is the exploited foreign worker. There is zero committment to growth outside cities because it is too expensive.

I favour separation of the North above the Capricorn line as nobody is interested in it aside as a money pit. This new nation has loads of water and loads of land and could easily support 20 million people on it's own. Indigenous could have a far greater say in this new mining rich country, it's culture and it's development and prosper as they should have already.

Not sure how Australia can keeping growing Sydney, Melbourne. Brisbane only.

The JamesH, TheMissus,

The whole premise of this article is flawed.

Boey provides ZERO evidence that Australians conflate asylum seekers and immigration. In my experience most Australians recognise that these are two separate issues.

Boey also writes:

"The government's obvious response to the asylum seeker issue should be to point out the tiny number of people arriving as asylum seekers relative to Australia's formal immigration program."

This is Taurine fertiliser on two levels.

--In the case of immigrants we hope we know who we are getting. We assume the vetting process has weeded out those able to adapt to life in Australia from those who cannot. As an immigrant I can attest that the vetting process is quite thorough. A mountain of documentation has to be supplied. By contrast asylum seekers deliberately destroy all means of identification before they arrive. Establishing the identity of an asylum seeker can be difficult. We have no idea whether they will sink or swim in Australia and, as a matter of plain fact, many sink.

--The numbers involved are small NOW. We have no idea how quickly they may grow. Evidence from Europe suggests that once a reliable people smuggling route is established the numbers balloon quickly.

None of this says we should refrain from taking in asylum seekers. But people who advocate an "open doors" policy need to be honest about the likely impact

No we should not.
Howard , Rudd and Turnbull are paranoid , these Shri Lankan people are not seeking a new zoo they are humans just like us . They seek a fair go in a civilized Country , hey "That's us !" Well nearly .

What we are doing with that ship is uncivilized for example it is set up for a crew of 45 ; this means it is deficient by a ratio of 2:1 for fresh water and Toilet facilities and Food preparation also adding to health considerations inadequate Air Conditioning and ventilation . Don't forget this is happening in the Tropics , the Galley will be a disaster area waiting for an outbreak to happen while "Nero Rudd" waits for something to pass?

Is it the "Black Bear and Faceless Woman" that they are escaping from or are they "Untouchables" what is driving the Oz paranoia and SL escapism .

Then we have Garrets Mob the Greens who have just found out that fire burns faster up hills (don't laugh it real , do Greens lack IQ?) (Marysville ABC) The Greens have found out that OZ is vastly overpopulated .........87 SL's will tip the balance !

SO that Ship is saving us , probably 750,000 dollars a day it's gotta be a great Kevvie solution plus it stops the Greens breeding .

Regarding GDP.

WE could probably increase productivity if we halted immigration a year or two. Immigration has becoming like buying a new outfit everytime you go out. At some stage it is best to re-visit what you already have and do some alterations.

We have a lot of inefficient business and government processes. We probably have 5 years immigration intake in under-employed labour. Many prejudices in the workplace and inflexible attitudes. Too many training centers and not enough on the job training.

Steven,
I agree with you, the illegal boat people debate has nothing to do with immigration or population levels.

People dislike the illegals coming simply because they are imposing themselves on us. They have not been invited or vetted and they hide their identities. In fact they are gate crashing and deceiving us.

We get about 2000 people a year arriving legally and then seeking asylum which is granted. The difference is that they have docs supporting their claim and we can check their bona fides. The ones that do not get refugee status are required to leave. Most people have no problem with genuine refugees being granted asylum.

General immigration policy is an entirely different matter and in my opinion the major parties have been lax in not putting forward any concept of a population policy.

We need an open and honest discussion on population. It is not helpfull in the slightest that the major parties have an agreement not to debate immigration matters.