According to Michael Pascoe at crikey.com.au, Australia’s real immigration numbers will approach 300,000 next financial year. This would mean that Australia overtakes Canada as the country with the highest per capita immigration rate in the world.

Read the article here:

http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20070517-Immigration-numbers-on-way-to-300000-next-year-but-lets-not-publicise-it-.html

In the UK, high immigration levels are being met with outright anger from the British public. Contrast this to Australia where the public are sleepwalking through the biggest wave of migration this ancient land has ever experienced.

that's characteristic of oligarchy, oligarch- the rulers do as they please without consulting the political cattle they rule. did you think you were one of the rulers before now? if you don't like suddenly realizing you're in the 'cattle' class, change your handle to 'democrat' and join me in calling for a democratic republic of australia.

or stop complaining when you get what you, and most ozzies, deserve.

Demos, good points mate, but, I don't believe as you apparently do, that there is such a thing as a workable 'democratic republic' which would be less subject to the same pressures from vested interests as our current system.

We would only be changing the pigs at the food trough. Not at first of course :) The 'newly triumphant revolutionaries' are always pure for the first year or 2 as they are establishing 'Day zero' but as time goes by, and they realize "Hey... we have quite a bit of power here.. why waste it on 'cattle'"

Hence, I take a different approach, that of making a "prophetic call"
Only as a mere echo I should add, of all the voices of the prophets who have been 'real'.

If you have some time on your hands, I recommend a reading of the book of Isaiah, you could also go a bit further, and make the historical connections to specific kings, and see more of their deeds and misdeeds in Kings and Chronicles.

The best we can hope for, is politicians/leaders who will respond to concience which is pricked by the annoying prophetic voice.
If you can point to some society which provides a reliable, enduring alternative, be my guest :)

IMMIGRANTS FROM UK ? One thing we should be scrutinizing VERY closely, is the number of UK migrants who are in fact ethnically Indian, and possibly Muslim. Each time I've travelled from Vermont South to Melbourne CBD by tram I have been amazed and the HUGE numbers of ethnic Indians who are on the trams. It's almost 'spot the Asian' because 'white' Australians are virtually non existant.

I'll say it again:

IMMIGRATION MUST ALWAYS take "cultural/racial/reliigous identity and cohesian into account"

This means that numbers of specific ethnic groups should be limited such that no one group achieves a dominant position. A good spread of many is MUCH more preferable than a preponderance of one, with the obvious exception of the already existing majority who actually define the cultural/racial texture/fabric of this great country.

Your posts have some interesting echoes, Boaz, that I thought you might like to be aware of. You say, inter alia...

>>IMMIGRATION MUST ALWAYS take "cultural/racial/reliigous identity and cohesian into account"<<

Here's an excerpt from the election manifesto of a political party in England:

"...we are committed to caring for and nurturing all sections of our national community. We also oppose the tendency of the other, non-nationalist, parties to set different sections of the community against each other over problems for which they themselves as politicians are largely responsible. The creation and maintenance of an undercurrent of national solidarity is one of the cornerstones of a true national democracy"

Sounds very familiar, and quite reassuring, doesn't it?

There's heaps more like this on the website of the British National Party, of whom it has been said:

"They are populists whose politics change like the wind. If the public is concerned with asylum, the BNP will exploit the issue. When Islamic fundamentalists commit terrorist attacks, suddenly all Muslims are to blame for the world’s ills. No matter what problems exist in this country, someone else is always to blame"

and

"Recently Mark Collett, leader of the young BNP was shown by channel 4’s Despatches to be an out and out Nazi sympathiser: 'National Socialism was the best solution for the German people in the 1930s', he told the cameras. 'I honestly cant understand how a man who’s seen the inner city hell of Britain today cant look back on that era [Hitler’s Germany] with a certain nostalgia'."

You can see my concerns, can't you?

However you pretty it up, you are a part of a rabble-rousing minority, inciting your fellow-citizens to take action against what you see as a major threat to its tranquillity. You use all the same arguments, all the same reassurances that you are merely concerned about our safety, all the same disclaimers.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

You do see my point, don't you?

Don't you?

But without immigrants who will do all the crap jobs that are beneath white Australia? Mexicans are doing wonders for the American economy. I sure would like an housemaid to work in my household for the very generous wage of $5 an hour. How great would that be!

Besides, most of them are probably Kiwis trying to escape that bananna republics woefull economy

Yep, that has stuffed my Sunday evening! 300 000 per annum. Holy s…!

Currently we are the second highest immigrant-accepting country on a per-capita basis and this would take us to the highly esteemed world’s first position…… and practically no one gives a hoot!

Such an extraordinarily obvious absurdity in the face of the national water crisis.

Such an extraordinarily obvious contradiction of magnanimous proportions when it comes to the message that we need to reduce fossil fuel consumption / greenhouse gas production.

Such an extraordinarily obvious antisustainability policy…at a time when directing this country onto a sustainable base is of the utmost importance.

What the hell is our government doing? And more pertinently, what the hell is the Australia populace doing by accepting this situation with barely a whimper against it?