KCB

<< And any sympathy for refugees has not been helped by the "tactics" used by some of them, such as resorting to hunger strikes and threats to blow up their ships, in trying to "force" the hand of Australian authorities. >>

I'm sure the asylum seekers are well aware that the tactics some of them are resorting to will not win them much in the way of community support. It speaks highly as to their level of desperation. They know they are genuine refugees. Many have a piece of paper to prove it and yet they're expected to wait indefinitely for years rolling into decades, with their lives on hold and no prospect of resettlement in sight. I think we'd all become a little desperate in such circumstances.

I'm not in favour of Kevin Rudd's 'big' Australia. Our land and water resources are already struggling and the situation will only worsen as the effects of climate change really start to kick in. I'm all for reducing our current levels of immigration, but strongly support an honouring of our humanitarian commitments.

The problem we and all modern consumerist societies have is that our continued economic 'growth' depends on having an ever increasing population and ever expanding markets. We're locked into a self-destructive cycle and unless we learn to live with less and live sustainably we're in for some very hard lessons ahead.

Banjo ' so you were invited to come here ?

I don't know that I was , all I know my family paid to come here , they bought a demountable building while the ship victualed at South Africa when the Ship arrived at Adelaide it was discovered that the first Governor of South Australia was to be accommodated in a Tent !
My forfather learning of this slight at the Kings Representative insisted the Gov vacate his tent to reside in his flash new demountable . So my family then became a guests of His Majesties Representative . So all this must better your tenure even though I can't flash an invitation like yours .
On the balance of probabilities I am the Stud .

Bronwyn,

The argument that high population growth is necessary for economic prosperity is belied by international comparisons. These statistics are from the CIA World Factbook for the top 10 countries on the World Economic Forum Competitiveness Index plus Australia. The population growth rate for Australia is from the latest (March 2009) ABS figures.

Country, Pop. Growth Rate, GNP per capita, Gini Index

Switzerland 0.276%, $41,800, 33.7
United States 0.975%, $46,000, 45
Singapore 0.998%, $51,500, 48.1
Sweden 0.158%, $38,100, 23
Denmark 0.28%, $37,100, 24
Finland 0.098%, $36,900, 29.5
Germany -0.053%, $35,400, 27
Japan -0.191%, $34,000, 38.1
Canada 0.817%, $39,100, 32.1
Netherlands 0.412%, $40,400, 30.9
Australia 2.1%, $38,100, 30.5

The Gini index measures social inequality. A higher number means more inequality. The GNP per capita figures are purchasing power parity. Note that none of these countries, all doing better than us by the reckoning of the World Economic Forum, has even half our population growth rate, and some are even losing population.

Population growth is good, however - for the top 1% of the population. They want bigger markets, effortless profits from real estate speculation, and a cheap, compliant work force, preferably educated and trained at someone else's expense. It is the rest of us who get to put up with crowding, water rationing, losing our gardens, etc.

Immigration to Australia should have stopped at least a decade ago. But, both major parties are obsessed with big populations while, at the same time, sitting back and watching Australia jobs going overseas, and the water supplies west of the Great Dividing Range steadily disappearing.

These brilliant ‘leaders’ now have us in a situation where there are not enough jobs for the people already here, and not enough water to guarantee supply in the future. But still they want more people!

Added to that, no recognition is given to the fact that two-thirds of the country is uninhabitable. And, there’s no point in talking about science and what it can do accommodate more people; our idiot politicians can’t even provide the current population with infrastructure or even proper housing.

We should be reducing population, not increasing it.

We have never had it better. More money, more toys, better cars, tons of food, plenty of water. We should be sharing but also should have a say who we share with. Even today we can't get fruit pickers and people to live outside of the cities. Get out of your self and see we have an abundance to share with other grateful recipients. My life has been greatly enhanced by immigrants that have integrated. I hope it continues for a long time. Having successive incompetent State Governments (mainly Labour) has led to jammed road systems in most cities. Sort that out and you can still have a beach to yourself in many parts of Australia. Stop being so selfish.

I think if there are no cities that can take any immigrants (be it too crowded, heavy consumption of resources, or just plain prejudiced) then those places need to be put off the list of places to go- and if none are present then it may have to be an option. We'd need to maintain a much more sophisticated (and publicly-accessible) index of such criteria than we do now.

I think we should also strongly favor conventional immigrants, and asylum seekers under clear danger from our immediate region (South-East Asia).

And we should also have very strict character-testing as a condition of gaining citizenship and willingness to respect local laws and rules.

Although keep in mind I'm also very wary of the above, as I don't think it quite appropriate that people need to be cross-examined so closely on condition of entry- perhaps only those who arrive without papers, as refugees from a more distant country, or have some other dubious aspect?