Individual

Get your facts straight:

Basic Age Pension for single person is:

$335.45 per week

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/compose-message-article.asp?article=11907

This does not include any supplements such as rental assistance.

The most a refugee granted a visa is entitled to is a one-off payment - do some homework and check for yourself:

http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/payments/crisis.htm

"Crisis Payment helps you if you are in severe financial hardship because you have experienced an extreme circumstance such as domestic violence or a natural disaster, you have been released from gaol or psychiatric confinement, or you have arrived in Australia for the first time on a qualifying humanitarian visa."

Get your facts straight:
Ammonite,
I'd have thought it was crystal clear to anyone with an ounce of brain that that was the purpose of my enquiry ?

Cheryl- extremes are repealed by giving convincing arguments why they should, if in fact the alternative is wrong in reality and not in the perceptions of those that disagree.
Meanwhile, a parliamentarian (or even an unelected politician for that matter) can be bribed by banks, extreme Christian groups, gun lobbies to see things their way by tailoring only to their personal desires at the expense of basic human rights;

I doubt you would get much luck joining various Middle East wars, privatizing public assets to corrupt organizations like MAcquarie Bank or Telstra, shutting down medical research, hospitals, mental hospitals, schools to sell the real-estate or fund religious chapalins in schools, internet censorship, banning stem cells, APEC, WYD temporary police-states, and medical practices that pander more to Cardinal Pell, the Christian Democrats-
-among many other things, if we had CIR.

Shockaholic
Don't forget most of East Asia- people in these countries are very much most of these things (though democracy isn't quite in their control, despite popular protests in most of these countries for the contrary).

Individual

I have provided clear evidence that your claims vis a vis Centrelink payments to Age pensioners and refugees is completely wrong.

Therefore, your post above makes no sense.

Japan is not an economic basket case because of its aging population.
This artictle "What does it mean for an economy to ‘turn Japanese’ and what determines whether it will?" clear demonstrates Japan's impressive economic record in recent years.

http://ckmurray.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-does-it-mean-for-economy-to-turn.html#more

You are still confused, Cheryl. Even without immigration or immigrant fertility, the population would still be growing, and it would keep on growing until the 2030s, assuming that the fertility rate stays at 1.9-2.0. Replacement level fertility only means that the next generation won't be any bigger than its parents' generation. Imagine a town where no one moves in or out. The town is founded by 100 people, the first generation. Each couple has 4 children, so there are 200 people in the second generation. Each couple in the second generation has 4 children, so there are 400 people in the third generation. The third generation now adopts replacement level fertility, so there are 400 people in the fourth generation as well. While these last children are being born, the first generation all die. The town has lost 100 people to death, but gained 400 people by birth, a net gain of 300 people. The growth will continue at slower and slower rates until all the generations are the same size (apart from extreme old age). I hope that this is clear. I have seen calculations that India's population would double before it eventually stabilised, even if they adopted replacement level fertility tomorrow and maintained it thereafter.

No one has suggested that we can stop all population growth immediately. We are locked into some population growth due to demographic momentum, but it is temporary. Once it has stopped, we can stabilise the population with some mild subsidies for children and/or modest net immigration, or we can allow it to slowly decline to whatever level is optimum. Immigration can go on at zero net, currently about 80,000 a year.