There has been a lot of discussion about population growth on OLO. The intention of this thread is not to rehash that stuff; it is to discuss why governments don’t take on the issue.

To borrow Andrew’s McNamara’s words; I would like to spend some time looking at the vexed issue of why politicians encourage population growth when the environment can’t stand it, the economy doesn’t need it and the people don’t want it.

Andrew McNamara is a rare ex-politician. He shares my deep concern about population growth. He was Queensland Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation up until the last election earlier this year.

Four days ago, he gave a speech to the Queensland Conservation Council.
Andrew McNamara Speech July 09.pdf

Some quotes;

‘Australia’s annual population growth in 2008 stood at a developed world high of 1.7%. Compare that with .9% in the USA, .6% in France and .3% in the UK. The world average is now 1.6%. India’s is 1.6%. Indonesia’s is 1.2%. Australia’s population at this rate of growth will pass 100 million by 2100. We will exceed 42 million people in 2050. That is another 2 Sydneys and 2 more Melbournes to feed and water, to power and manage the waste from, in just over 40 years. How can we not be talking about this?’

‘It is nothing short of scandalous that Australia’s sustainable population is not the starting point in almost every policy debate.’

‘In my view, a failure to recognize and confront the danger of unrestrained population growth now transcends every other problem that confronts us.’

So why is our Ruddiculous government not only turning a blind eye to the enormous problems associated with continuous population growth, but is actually facilitating this growth as much as it can? Why isn’t there enormous community outrage about this?

You seem to be placing an unrealistic limitation on the discussion, Ludwig, through two key assumptions.

The first is that everyone already agrees with you.

>>The intention of this thread is not to rehash that stuff; it is to discuss why governments don’t take on the issue.<<

While it is very simple - and not inappropriate - to simply "do the math", and predict an exhaustion of the earth's resources in x years time, what is inevitably ignored is that we in Australia represent around a third of one percent of the world's population.

If we do not maintain a vigorous and growing population, that takes advantage of the most considerable natural resources at our disposal, it is just possible that someone else will.

So any discussion on Australia's population should not be subsumed into some general nightmare scenario, but specifically describe the pros and cons of any individual strategy.

The second assumption is that population should be a significant government concern, even "the starting point in almost every policy debate."

Any "population policy" would involve the grossest infringement of human rights our country has ever seen. Check out the impact of such government action on the ordinary people of China and India, before getting too gung-ho about such arguments.

And finally:

"Australia’s population at this rate of growth will pass 100 million by 2100. We will exceed 42 million people in 2050.<<

Using the same calculation, in 2100 the population of India will be 4.5 billion, and Indonesia's over 700 million. Shouldn't that come into the equation somewhere?

We do not live in a vacuum.

Even in Queensland.

its sad that we are the problem...yet govts solution to the problem is bring in more workers willing to work for pennies...it is noticable that the ideal worker works 67 years then quietly dies at 68..after payong compuslory super...so the fat cats can get all their govt pensions[that are directly the problem of why states are going broke]

its time we had our twitter colour revolutions in house...what we need is the cia/mossad teaching us to do thgis twitter colour rebellion stuff[instead of them iranians]that are constantly in the news

its time we had a federal yellow striped tweet-solution..to head off the treason of the opposition leader,..now going to vote for the new carbon tax

or the burgandy qld..tweet-solution to the broken promises of the privatisation..wages freezing and the hospital's..on top of selliung off warter gas transport and now shools...it didnt mention before getting re elect-ed

or the grey tweet-solution in nsw for the treasons of the nsw govt re transport isues and selling indulgences to big mining intrests

yes the problem is us for lettin big G..govt lie to us big time..but we have the twitter solution..and while were at it we could habve the twitter evolution..

[in black and white as well as colour vision for the media not revealing the truth...and distortion of real news with thst which has replaced the news..[sport,cop and cooking shows...long live the twit-wit revolution...

besides were all going to die soon from some flue or other...so dont sweat about population growth..the eugenisists will soon fix that...you dont realise those phones gave you cancer..[lets just blame that on the media...or govt..

.ok now to get the message edited down..for the sheep to digest the facts..on their twit wit twitter...viva la evolution

its just like us forgotten australians , the goverment does not to act on the abuse we victims suffered and still the goverment will not say sorry to us victims ,

the goverment does not like the truth being told about the wrongs that have happend to us victims , they even destroy our proof of what had happend to us victims ,

the problem is not us its the australian goverment who continue to cover up the forgotten australians ,

and want to sweep us victims under the carpet ,

its about time both goverments labour and liberal stop with all the coruption and cover ups that have occurred and still are occurring till this day

give justice to the forgotten australians

Dear Ludwig,
When love of money replaces God, commonsence disapears And man chooses to believe anything. A wacky soul is a sure sign of no respect for the truth and the ability to believe in the emperors new clothes. One man has chosen to waste the GNP of the USA not very sensible but I have not heard much about it on the news. Obviously something is very wrong with a vast number of people. It is called the works of the flesh and starts with self. As you say people are the problem and without a change of heart nothing changes.

Dear Ludwig,

Nobody can deny that the planet has a finite
amount of resources or that it can tolerate
only a limited amount of pollution. If world
population continues to grow rapidly, and if
pollution and resource depletion continues at
an increasing rate - where is human society
headed? The most optimistic answer to these
questions would be that, one way or another,
sweeping social changes await us.

You asked why is our government not doing anything
more about the problem of population control.

It's a common global problem. There are political,
religious, and other idealogical influences that
affect social attitudes concerning population
limitation. The Judeo-Christian injunction is
"to be fruitful and multiply." An old Arab proverb
declares that "to have many children is to be blessed
by Allah." And Islamic religion (in several countries)
is opposed to birth control. The Catholic Church
has always opposed the use of contraceptives.

To complicate things even further, some politicians
regard high birth rates as essential for their nations'
economic or political strength. Many Governments see
that "population growth is a natural phenomenon,"
whose problems can be solved by capitalism.

Perhaps if
governments were to set up policies that focus on a
sharing of resources (rather than exclusively on
economic development that may benefit only a minority)
it may be a promising way to reduce population growth.
In other words, if people were allowed to enjoy such
basics of life as food, shelter, clothing, health care,
education, (especially for women),
and a sense that things will be better in the
future, they may tend to voluntarily limit the size of
their families.