FRANKGOL.. sorry mate.. didn't mean to confuse you there..but lets face it..some posters just cramm a whole lot of information in long rambling sentences and have no paragraphs.. I can't read stuff like that so I try to space it out and use the 'headline' subtext approach.
Adapt to my culture :)

Easytimes.. good video. America is symbolized by Brintney Spears..

1/ Recent interviewer
-Question "Do you have any regrets for things you have done" ?
-Answer "(very confident) Noooo I have NOOO regrets for ANYthing"

2/ Britney Spears last week : bald, verging on a breakdown, into rehab.. falling to pieces. Paranoid about losing her children.

Yep.. thats America. "Its all about MEEEEEE" and that means I won't have enough children to replace 'me' and I'll just focus on the 'now' and existential thrills, we reap what we sow. If we don't replace ourselves, OTHERS will, they will grab the opportunity and realize that the demographic trends mean they will displace traditional non Indigenous Australians in due course without firing a shot (Except of course in SouthWest Sydney)

The greatest threats to Australia are:
-"Me" (first, second and third) attitude
-"time".

It stands to reason that the more diverse a population is the more divergent they will be. Bleating about humanity doesn't alter the fact that most conflicts around the globe are ethnic or sectarian based. Sadly, we just don't get on when we are in large groups. The reality is that every nation needs a homeland and they don't want to share it with anyone else. Immigration is another term for "new homeland" with the same result. It is still a sacred cow in Australia even though the policy has outlived its time. The net benefits that may flow in terms of GDP are outweighed by social dislocation and the demands on the environment. Most Australians would have preferred a lower standard of living and a culturally homogeneous neighborhood to what we have now.

Oh dear. Another "turn-back-the-clocker".

>>The reality is that every nation needs a homeland and they don't want to share it with anyone else<<

I hate to break this to you, but ever since man decided that his mission was power and conquest, the basis of this little reality went out of the window.

For as long as we have had the ability to transport armed men to the next village, and then the village after that, a homeland has simply been shorthand for "where I live now".

There is no country on earth that can say "this has always been my homeland, which I have never shared, and will never share with anyone".

Not even this one. We have adopted it.

So, given that we are all mongrels of some kind, and have our geographic "roots" in many different places over the generations, the concept of this being a pure and inviolable "homeland" is just a little tattered.

We are incredibly lucky that we or our ancestors immigrated here at some point in the past. However it is clear that this luck is assumed by some to give us the right to be incredibly mean-spirited, ungenerous and un-Christian to the next lot to arrive, just because we got here first.

Incidentally, it would be interesting to see this put to a vote:

>>Most Australians would have preferred a lower standard of living and a [more] culturally homogeneous neighborhood to what we have now.<<

I wonder. Considering the question would have to start "Would you prefer to have a lower standard of living rather than..."

The first question you'd get be "how much lower", and the second "than what?"

You wouldn't be able to answer either, would you?

Good post Pericles .. just one tiny (and repetitious bit) that needs addressing.

While there is a definite "hey..ur not our mob.. don't come here" in most people, there is also the quite proper recognition of the dangers of large groups of people who do not share the same values as us.
Small minorities of 'them' is ok.. LARGE minorities of 'them' is not, whoever the 'them' might be. Because 'they' will more than likely act like 'us' in their turn.
So, that wise saying comes to mind "Soul, know thy self" well something like that.. We act against 'uncontrolled and unlimited influxes of them', because we see what that very thing in our case did to the indigenous people.

So, the issue is not so much about charity and rights.. but common sense, human nature and history.

The issue of immigration is totally confused. Some advocate it because it will degrade our living standards and so make us less of a target for other countries. Some advocate it because it will make our living standards higher. Some advocate it because to oppose it is, in their opinions, blatantly racist. The latter group are the most powerful, and stand ready to form anti-racism inquisitions least any public figure questions immigration. Surely the rapidly widening inequality in Australia should point to the cynical use of immigration by a few to enrich themselves at the expense of all Australians.

Anyone for a working holiday in Siberia?

Pericles,
The first of your quotes of Sparker is, I guess, his opinion and I have never heard that expressed before.

In your second quote of his, he is wrong as I understand that our living standard was much higher when we had a less and a more homogeneous population and our living standard has slipped since then. I don't know where our living standard is now or how the demographers measure it.

I agree that we are a lot of mongrals, but that is good as I have distinctly noticed that crossbreds, in animals, are smarter than purebreds, and I think this applies to us as well. Probably gets down to inbreding to maintain a pure breed.

I also agree, we are fortunate that our forefathers migrated here and it is their sweat and toil that gave us that good fortunate. Yes, we owe it to others that we share this and we have done just that. But we also have a responsibility not ruin our forebears hard work through overstocking.

We badly need a serious discussion on and to determine a population policy, which the major political parties have never given us. Those like Tim Flannery say we have far too many people now, but others disagree. I think it is important that we determine this and not leave it up to big buisness, who have the parties in their pocket, and use only our GNP as the sole criteria.

We will not solve the worlds over population by overstocking our own country. If we decide to cap our population at a certain level it wiil not mean we are selfish and uncaring for others.