A concise summary of the dysfunctions of the national immigration addiction.There are sound environmental,economic and social reasons to reduce the country's population growth rate and the majority of the voters reject the 'Big Australia' argument.Unfortunately both of the major parties are bankrolled or intimidated by vested business interests who profit from mass immigration. So much capital has been wasted "doing each other's laundry". Surely it's not a coincidence that most of the prosperous nations have relatively small populations.

“The Australian economy is like a dog chasing its tail. More migrants fuel growth in the building and people-servicing industries, which then demand more migrants for labour.”

That should be easy enough for anyone to understand.

This is pretty obvious too:

“What will Australia have to show economically for the enormous effort of accommodating an extra 9-10 million migrants by 2050? More debt and a more daunting greenhouse emissions challenge.”

It’s good to have –at last – an educated opinion from a professional in the field.

Great to have Bob Birrell on this site.

Sometimes an issue is so straightforward that hard decisons must be made. Immigration is such an issue, despite some policy consequences such as a temporary slowdown in economic growth.

Very good article.

Sometimes, I'd like to grab the likes of Abbott, Gillard, Harvey Norman and Twiggy Forrest and bang their heads together. They're all 'growthists' yet the people who have to live with their 'growth at all cost' mantra are powerless to do a damned thing about stopping it.

Will there be no end to this incessant madness of population expansion?

This is Bob Birrell’s first article on OLO. I hope there will be many more.

Why does Monash University keep Bob Birrell on staff? He's so anti-immigration and his anti-foreign students campaign has cost Monash a large number of foreign students. Bear in mind that Monash has 17,000 foreign students. Thats way more than Birrell's salary.