Aime,

I think you'll find that the government does not hand out $70,000 to new immigrants.

There are however requirements for new immigrants to show that they will be able to support themselves and not become dependent on welfare, so that new commodore you see them driving around, is most likely bought with their own money.

Properly managed immigration continues to bring in new skills and new cultures, that if we stopped immigration we would miss out on, becoming less able to compete on an international stage, and to be frank worse off culturally.

Yes James. Properly managed immigration I fully agree with. "Properly managed" should reflect a stable population yet it's apparent that the Government is bringing in massive numbers of immigrants in order to prop up economic conditions. More people equal more spending, especially, if as you say, people arriving here have the means to contribute to the merry-go-round of increased spending to stimulate the economy.

I will retract the $70,000 hand-out as a general application to immigrants. I'm thinking about the Ballarat intake of 50 families of Sudanese. I was told by someone working in welfare who, for their own job security, shall remain nameless, that the Ministry of Housing put these people on top of the waiting list in order to ensure Ballarat got them first. Ballarat council has the same approach as the Federal Government in wanting an exploding population to stimulate further the local economy. I'll stop short of saying the Ballarat council is corrupt, but some very shady deals concerning property have been done in recent years which has favored land developers. More people need more houses which is why the council was desperate to take in the new arrivals at the expense of locals who struggled whilst being pushed to the bottom of the public housing waiting list. The Ballarat council will take anybody, hence the rise in crime, vandalism, bashings, house break-ins and traffic congestion on roads never designed to support such a rise in personal transport.

But, Ballarat isn't alone in the push to capitalise on heavy immigration. It's happening everywhere you look, but it's simply not sustainable into the future. Our resources are diminishing and our future generations, no matter where their parents were born, will know nothing but misery because of the short sightedness of current Government policies.

Aime
You ought to consider throwing your hat in the ring.
Its a well known fact we have taken the dregs instead of holding out like some countries.
btw. I think its actually a much higher number if you add up students who are often handed a PR on a plate and people with working visa.
These people are not mixing.
You have focks of this culture here and another culture there.
You cant open your mouth anymore in this country without being called rasist.
I am not sure we can actually hold the Democrats reponsibly but they seem to spend more time going on about migrants and little about their local people and jobs for them

I think you will find they do get a lot of votes through the Aussie migrants.

Does anybody know Rudd thoughts on numbers coming into Australia?
A great eader warned back in the 1940s that Australia could never carry too many.
We need to close our boarders.
Up here in QLD the locals are being pushed out by everybody arriving to get away from the strong migration numbers in their states.
Almost everybody I have spoken to that have relocted here said it was because they are sick of these gangs and sick of people not speaking English down South.

Your right. We have no water and if somebody does not stop the flow of people arriving here we will end up a third world country for sure.

If anyone doubts the stupidity of high immigration into a country that is running out out water and which is losing it's biodiversity read this:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/NATIONAL/Qld-govt-rejects-population-cap/2007/04/22/1177180460654.html

But Deputy Premier Anna Bligh said a population cap was a simplistic solution that would place pressure on the economy.

"The only way we could really do that is to put a fence up at the (Queensland) border, or to cancel or freeze all new home building approvals," she said.

"That would have a very serious impact on the construction industry that a lot people rely on for jobs."
(end of quote)

Get that: we are encouraging people to move to Queensland even though we don't heve enough water, our hospitals can't cope with the demand and our roads often grid-locked during peak hours because we have to keep people employed.

So, how are today's new arrivals to be employed? One would have to assume from what Anna Bligh said, by importing even more people so that more houses can be built. And how are those yet newer arrivals to be employed?

And these words came from the mouth of someone who is reputedly left-wing and from a student activist background. If Senator Andrew Bartlett were simply to stand up against this complete stupidity, he, together with possibly a second Democrats Senator from Queensland would be assured of being re-elected in the forthcoming elections.

PALE, you said I should consider 'throwing my hat in the ring' but my location makes it extremely difficult to do anything from here. I moved away from the closest major inland city many years ago and have established myself in a low impact lifestyle. The Internet has allowed me to keep up with what's really happening in the world rather than what Murdock's paper empire rams down our throats and at times I get very angry at the way politicians destroy the little person only to grovel to huge corporations from other countries, but in reality, there's little I can do on my own from way out here.

My work colleagues are tired of my warnings about the coming shortfall in world oil supplies and unsustainable populations, but I don't really blame them. They're caught up in their own private worlds of putting their kids through the very best schools, complaining about the state of the carpets in one of their rental houses....well, you get the picture. Most of them have husbands, wives or partners who work full time. In short, they're living life to the full without stopping to consider what might happen to them should part of their world come crashing down.

Dagget, I read you Age link you provided and it leaves me shaking my head. Why can't they see that the economy they worship so much is a false idol, yet with enough power to ruin all we hold dear?

James Purser (http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=818#14667),

When you write, "if we stopped immigration we would miss out on, becoming less able to compete on an international stage" you are presumably referring to skilled professionals poached from poor third world countries because this government and its corporate backers are too lazy and too miserly to train Australians?

I think that this argument in favour of immigration, where advocates of high immigration would have us believe that they are motivated by humanitarian compassion, is revealing. Indeed, if you read Sheila Newman's excellent 2002 Master's Year thesis, "The growth lobby and its absence" (pdf 2.6MB), downloadable from http://candobetter.org/sheila, you would find that the principle advocates and beneficiaries of high immigration, are in fact, property speculators and property developers.

In point of fact, if you were to read the chapter "Defence" in the recently published "National Insecurity - The Howard Governments Betrayal of Australia"(http://shop.atmitchell.com/product_info.php?products_id=1194, see also review I wrote at http://candobetter.org/node/96), you will find that Australia was,in fact a very technologically advanced nation in the 1930's and 1940's at a time when immigration was very low. The book argues that
Australia's military preparedness, based upon our technological capabilities "was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what saved Australia from invasion in 1942". Geoff Davies in Economia also argued that Australia was a technoligcally advanced nation back then.

In any case, isn't it time we got past the idea that the only way for the international community to progress is through constant cut-throat competition? Isn't it time, given the grave threats posed by climate change, resources depletion and loss of biodiversity that countries began to cooperate instead?

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As for the 'cultural' argument, this is nothing more than 'cultural cringe' garbage. Australia's culture is not, nor never was, inherently worse (or, for that matter, better) than foreign cultures. It was the right culture, more or less, for this country's environment.

Simply overwhelming this culture with foreign cultures, instead of sensibly and gradually integrating appropriate aspects of foreign cultures, is a recipe for social and environmental disaster.