When are we having a public debate on immigration and population growth?

Our Government is factoring in a population growth of 48 per cent between 1990 and 2020 to meet the 5% reduction of emissions by 2020. This massive increase in population is not due to the great strength in the loins of Australians (we have the same fertility rate as most European countries), but simply because our Federal Government is running one of the biggest national immigration programs in the world. If it weren't for these massive levels of immigration, Australia's population would have stabilised by now.

As one of the planet's highest per capita carbon emitters, surely our obligation to cut back means we should not be deliberately increasing our numbers? Businesses and land developers benefit from a continual demand for goods are services but most of the population is disadvantaged and have their quality of life reduced. More people means additional environmental impacts as more people demand and compete for limited natural resources. While Australians are encouraged to live sustainably, and become more conservative in their water and power usage, our government boasts of our high population growth rate, almost entirely due to the massive number of people they continue to import year after year! Surely these efforts are contradictory?

Isn’t it time we realised that immigration-driven population growth is prohibiting our ability to reduce carbon emissions, not to mention ensure a high standard of living for future generations of Australians? Just because we have always had a high immigration program it doesn’t mean it has to continue. The rationale for high immigration no longer exists. The economies of scale argument died along with our domestic manufacturing industry. The other old argument that we need a larger population to stave off a potential Asian invasion seems downright silly these days given that most of our immigrants now come from Asia. That's a bit like 1930s Poland attempting to defend itself from Nazi German invasion by importing millions of Germans.

It's time that Australia ended its mass immigration program and repudiated the "growth for growth's sake" ideology.

Yes you are quite right Bernie Masters, I don't know how I missed that, thanks.

Breeding people because of fear! We the human race have been doing that for centuries, but now everyone's almost got a nuke in there backyard and all we do is put up some signs saying, Keep Out! or we shall blow your crappy little island off the face of the earth, that's if they thought or even looked like being unneighborly.

This is one of the benefits of having a few firecrackers in the backyard and with that, there will be no invasions, at least until the U.S drop the ball, then there maybe some concerns.

I don't like to say it, but there are a lot of Asians on the planet now days and there genetics don't quite reach the level of Atlantis which was clearly the ancient past of now in there billions and taking our ideas and making them better and so on. Evolution favours them, being indigenous and all, we have domesticated a number of species on this planet to date which ever way you look at it.

The mad dog will only fear the stick!

I guess we might just be thinking about holding one.

You know some do bite the hand that has fed them.

A little caution to the wind I thinks.

Just a thought.

EVO

Yabby

I guess that in your little world women never earn your respect then. You are sounding very like old Col on this.

Let me make this clear, I don't care what you personally think of me. I do care that women are given equal opportunity to speak out and not treated with disdain and condescension for simply having an opinion.

As I said I do not agree with Cheryl and I do agree with you so far as contraception needs to be freely available for women AND men in third world countries. However, WITHOUT education all the condoms in the world won't make any difference.

To give you a feel of being treated with condescension, I deliberately referred to you in diminutive terms (sweety, darling etc) I rarely do this, preferring to address the argument or the topic. However, you use pejorative terms towards any female poster who happens to either disagree with you (like Cheryl) or challenge you regarding your credibility of opinion - as I did.

Therefore, if you can't take it then don't dish it out in the first place. Critique my opinions by all means - but when you descend into personal attacks you lose any value your arguments may have had.

I can have disagreements with other posters that don't devolve into a slanging match simply because we have stuck to the topic. Challenge yourself for a change, refute my argument without resorting to derision.

*To give you a feel of being treated with condescension, I deliberately referred to you in diminutive terms*

ROFL, sounded more like terms of endearment to me :)
I thought it was quite amusing and had a bit of a chuckle.

*Therefore, if you can't take it then don't dish it out in the first place.*

I can't take it Fractelle? Speak for yourself lol, not for me.
I remind you that hardly a poster has had more crap thrown at him
on OLO then I have, on the various animal welfare threads. There
arn't many names that I haven't been called. Ok, so be it, I am
not a sensitive petal as you are.

Yes I have called some of them housewives. For some of the posters
throwing the most insults, had absolutaly no qualifications in the
fields where they claimed to know something. Not even practical
experience. Zilch, just blessed hearts. Pointing out their
qualifications, is an extremely valid point to make.

You might see the refenence to "housewife" as a derogatory term,
I certainly don't, for without their skills in that field, our
houses would be in chaos. So the job they do is highly valued,
but that does not mean that they have experience in anything
from neuro surgery to livestock husbandry.

In this case I have once again made the point clear, that
"family planning services" includes education. If that goes
over your head, well so be it, I can't help that.

Yabby,

Fractelle's fragile man, leave her alone. She sees a lot of things on gender lines. To her the world is full of oafish misogynist sexist pigs desperate to put her down just because she's a woman. So be real careful with your language, and treat her nicer than you would the male posters.

You might not see 'housewife' as derogatory, and neither do I, but we're feminists who see the role many women have fulfiled in our society as valuable. Being a feminist, you might want to treat women and men posters equally as well. But Fractelle doesn't see things this way.

You might think you're treating her the same as any other poster, but that's where you're going wrong. To disagree with a woman is to be a bully and an abusive man trying to silence her opinion. She sees it her duty to back up other female posters who have arguments with men too, as a man arguing with a female is disrespectful, or somehow an unfair battle. In fact she can tell that if you argue with a woman, you probably call them "B & T's'" (though I'm not sure what that means).

Anyway, just thought I'd give you a heads up. She's really sensitive about it.

I'm really glad you're not a misogynist, KAEP. Watch out for Yabby and Houellebecq, though.
They may lead you astray.