"Surely population growth is what we should be focusing on more than anything?"

Emmanuel Macron raised this issue and was labelled all sorts of nasty things. And he's a left-liberal pin-up boy.

Bill Gates has made similar remarks: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/gates-warns-turning-point-africa-population-booms/

http//www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/gates-warns-turning-point-africa-population-booms/

Another try!!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/gates-warns-turning-point-africa-population-booms/

Worked.

Great article Guy Hallowes. Well done thanks very much.

Australia and the other western democracies could offer leadership by recognising that rapid population growth is a long term problem. Simply reducing immigration to net zero (the same out as in) which is about 70,000 per year and eliminating tax and welfare benefits past the second child, would send a message that population growth is a problem that needs to be managed.

It is no surprise that Kenya and Nigeria don't listen to Australia on population while Australia is enthusiastically trying to increase its population.

ericc,

Australians have shown that they want a stable population by a) reducing their own family sizes, and b) consistently supporting lower levels of immigration.

Yet the major parties in this country refuse to listen to public opinion and have put us on a path to double our population roughly every 45 years through massive immigration. This raises serious questions about exactly how 'democratic' Australia really is.

We like to think we are a robust democracy but I think Australia increasingly resembles a corrupt oligarchy.

Just look at Population Minister Alan Tudge on 60 Minutes recently trying to avoid answering questions about future population levels: https://twitter.com/60mins/status/1109758717136785415

He clearly doesn't want to give us a straight answer!