Fredrich

I thought unkindly you'd be more used to the media of tattooing than writing or etching...Any forearm would probably do...eh?

Somebody has to create Australia's wealth and export industries and its us here in WA who are doing
it! For that skilled migrants are required, as Aussies arn't applying for the jobs. Remember its
all you people crowding into Sydney, who are benefitting from our wealth creation.

It would make sense to me if more 4 year work visas were issued and less permanent visas. If
somebody successfully intergrates into Australian society, makes their contribution etc, then that
person could be considered for a permanent visa. That system would reduce the amount of people
pouring into Sydney, which it sounds is the problem, but still provide the skills in those parts of
Australia where they are urgently required.

I don't think that multiculturalism is a failure as such. Plenty of people from plenty of cultures
have intergrated extremely well here and are a benefit to all.

Where we have a specific problem, as do many countries, is that no matter which way you look at it,
it cannot be denied that Islam is a religion that teaches divisiveness, hatred, Muslims being
superior to others etc. Lots of people don't take religion too seriously, but when we then add
Saudi money, preaching their radical Wahabi fundamentlist form of Islam, the inevitable result will
be exactly what happened at Cronulla. Aussie women being called sluts, Aussie society that is
looked down on, is exactly what Wahabi Islam preaches, so no wonder we have a problem.

Again, well done Andrew Bartlett for reading and responding to the comments in this forum.

I guess I don’t fit into one of the pigeon holes that politicians are forced to stick people into in order to determine how to set policy, because I love having a wide variety of people of different cultures in Australia, but I also think high immigration is unsustainable and therefore bad for Australia. Not just bad environmentally, but bad socially and economically, as well.

Mr. Bartlett comments that perhaps immigration is bad environmentally for Australia, but for the world as a whole, high immigration to Australia is good.

“the net environmental impact is more disputable, although I think it you assess it globally rather than just on Australia it would still come out ahead.”

I’d like to see more detail, to back up that statement. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Australians use more resources than the great majority of the countries that the immigrants come from, so even if the world's population stayed the same, the environmental impacts would be larger with more people in Australia.

Secondly, exactly what is Mr. Bartlett advocating with this comment. That other countries around the world should reduce their populations, but it is okay for Australia to increase its population. I don’t see how the “assess it globally” effect works otherwise. If he is saying that; does he really want Australians to support the idea that we should increase our population to improve our “economic and social positives,” and tell Kenya, Rwanda, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Bolivia to reduce their populations because they are damaging the environment with high populations? I hope not, but I can’t figure it any other way.

I also dispute the comment that immigration is good for Australia socially and economically, because the social harmony of Australia and the economy of Australia won’t work if the environment is stuffed.

continued

In referring to immigration numbers Mr. Bartlett states that “no responsible politician will support a dramatic reduction in these numbers.” Why is that? Is it because there might be a short term drop in economic activity associated with a drop in immigration numbers. A short term slow down in the economy would have the opposition (Democrat, Labour or Liberal) yelling that the current government are poor economic managers and should be dumped from office. Nothing would boost immigration like the fear of losing the next election, but is that the best thing for the long term future of Australia. Probably not.

Lastly, when is population growth going to stop? Anybody with a calculator knows that it can’t go on forever. We are not living sustainably now. Increasing population numbers makes it harder to live sustainably. Why should we leave the difficulties associated with slowing population growth to our children? Why is that responsible leadership? A hundred years ago Australian life expectancy was in the 50’s, now we expect to live into our 80’s. We have been managing with an “Ageing population” for a hundred years, but now it is some sort of big problem. Give me a break. There must be some better reason.

Please Mr. Bartlett (and Mr Costello, Mr Howard and Mr Beazley) convince me that boosting immigration is really good long term for Australia, and not just a strategy for the best result in the next election.

Andrew I admire you responding, as very few do. However the populate or perish syndrome is a failed philosophy, by those of little vision. Why anyone can think that more and more people will improve our lot is rather laughable. But then again economic and religious slaves can't see past the mirror in their heads.

Australia has just about lost the final chance to show the world how to live in a sustainable and progressive way. But the populance are forced to vote for people like you against the constitution, who have no idea of what to do for a viable future. Isn't it enough to face collapse of our environment, the massive growing problem of lack of water, degraded rivers and lands, to see that we are struggling to support those we have.

Population growth is only to support the economic wealth of a few and the brain dead desire of the religious to have more and more of their self centered clones overrun us.

Considering the development in genetics, people will soon live well beyond their centenaries. The only course is to maintain or reduce population to 15 million over time. This would give us the opportunity to develop best environmental practices as well as grow essential exports.

With our technology, we don't need a growing labour force, but a sustainable future. Sadly the current power brokers refuse to accept that.

Your party has failed the people that supported you on many occasions, so anything you have to say sounds just like your colleagues in the twin houses of despotic endevour. You all say listen to me, I will fix it, but don't expect me to do anything, but collect my huge economic future at your expense.

Your political religion, has the same credibility as the monotheistic religions and just as destructive for us. You want support, put forward policies that will give us a future, not repeat failed stupidities

Immigration of the current style, just brings more and more problems that can't be solved, not less.

"ven if it were desirable and possible to frame laws that could select migrants according to their “affinity” to some ideal of an Anglo-Saxon Christian Australian culture, many of our migration places would be unfilled if we tried to insist on drawing from such a shallow pool."

That may well be true Andrew, but it is also true that it would be entirely possible to fill our migration quotas without having to consider the option of importing any more adherents of the "Religion of Peace".

There are easily enough potential migrants amongst Hindu India and Buddhist China to fill our entire quota many times over, and in addition there are a higher proportion of skilled applicants from these countries. Immigrants from these countries are "model minorities" in any country they decide to settle in.

Why should we endanger our way of life by importing more people who follow a religion that has declared war on Western society when there is absolutely no need to? When you can answer this question have another post telling us why.

Every country in the world (with the notable exception of the USA) has had significant issues with its muslim minority over the last few years. Why should we continue to import more muslims when it's perfectly obvious that there are better options for Australia?