Okay lets knock over the "Australia scared off the Japanese with its amazing technological prowess" thing first.

The reason we weren't invaded was not due to our technology, it was due in large part to the American fleet smacking every Japanese convoy it could find, and our soldiers/militia making the Japanese fight step by bloody step over the Kakoda Track. By making sure they couldn't get supplies while we were falling back on an ever shortening supply line, the Japanese were worn down.

Australia's industrial capacity at the time was by no means the best in the world.

As to the claims of being flooded by different cultures. Here's some numbers from the last census on where recent immigrants have arrived from(2006):

Lebanon: 757
China: 8435
New Zealand: 11688
United Kingdom: 15079

James, it doesn't matter who they are, what color they are or where they came from. In the year 2005, 203,700 new arrivals settled in Australia whilst a child was born every two minutes. We've now clocked up a population of over 21,000,000 people in an arid and mostly desolate continent, a continent that has few major rivers and those we do have are running at very low levels.

I'm not advocating a complete halt to immigration forever, but perhaps we should aim for close to zero population growth or at least very minimal population growth until it can be proven without doubt that climate change does not exist and that we are not on the eve of ever rising fossil fuel prices. I personally believe it's already too late to shut the door on the latter.

Climate change or the end of cheap oil will be catastrophic to our way of life, especially where more and more migrants are being crammed into Melbourne, Sydney and major centers along the East coast. Food will be scarce and the means to truck it from Queensland to Victoria or WA will evaporate. Actually, a reduction in population might not be a bad idea. To insist on the opposite for the perverse notion of expanding the economy is absolute nonsense.

By the way, are you the same James Purser that is currently running for a Senate ticket?

Aime,

I'm intending on running as an independent for the Senate yes.

My previous post pointing out the source of our immigrants wasn't meant to argue whether immigration is a good or bad thing, but rather to counter the rather hysterical complaint about "foreign cultures diluting our own".

James

Whats hysterical about that?

If you want any votes I strongly urge you to take a walk around Sydney and the suburbs.

Try finding someone to speak English for a start.

Either way Ammie is right. We have no water. Soon we wont have enough food. Just wait until they declay Australia war criminals and put sanctions up.

For those of you who think it wont ever happen here- think again.

Mind you the dairy farmers may get the last laugh because they are already being forced to sell their milk to China because the Australian public have been too selfish to care that they cant even come out even let alone make a profit.

The biggest majority of workers in this country has been the farmers.
They have screwed them to the wall. How on earth do you think our farmers can carry the work load and feed more and more people that we keep brining in.

BTW. There are over three hundred thousand arriving every four weeks James.
As far as I know that does not include the students who are promised PR if they study certain subjects.

Ammie
I would not worry about trying to educate your work buddies.
Just grow your own veggies and buy some chooks and let them live in their own selfish little world.

Until it actually effects them you are talking to deaf ears.
The world is richer for you in it but direct your energy into people who appreciate your brain and good intentions.
People like you are few and far.

I thank your parents who I am sure would be proud of you.

Its hysterical because its not backed up by any evidence. As I pointed out in my previous post, we are not being flooded by different cultures, our largest sources of immigrants have consistantly been the UK and NZ, countries which share our culture.

While there may be an argument towards limiting immigration on resource grounds (and I'm not convinced on that), ignorant bleatings about "we're being flooded by [INSERT HATED GROUP HERE]" hold no water with me.

As to your snide little remark about walking down a street in sydney and not being able to find an english speaker, I'd like to point out that Australians are no different overseas they will group together, prefer to speak their native tongue and not integrate. Its a natural thing for people to group together with people like them. The second generation is where you start to see integration happening.

James Purser,

Are you familiar with the adage "figures don't lie but liars can figure"? This sort of misleading use of statistics to conceal demographic changes now under way was demolished in Paul Sheehan's "Among the Barbarians", pp128-129 (1998) .

Why do you choose such obviously selective and incomplete statistics to 'prove' your point?

Why no figures from India, Pakistan, other South East Asian nations, Oceania, Middle Eastern countries other than tiny Lebanon, Africa or Latin America? Why couldn't you have given aggregates for these regions? Are your figures based on the 'official' figure or the higher actual figures of 300,000 as shown by Ross Gittins (http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/backscratching-at-a-national-level/2007/06/12/1181414298095.html)?

It is an indisputable fact that areas of Sydney, that were previously Anglo-Celtic are now predominantly populated by people from Asia and the Middle East. I lived in one such suburb in Sydney, Auburn, from 1991 until 1994.

In any case, I also happen to consider the cultures of the UK to be foreign. The culture of New Zealand is, perhaps, less so, but the high numbers of cross-Tasman immigrants is also of concern to me.

Regardless of cultural issues, the main concern is sheer numbers. With our continent running dry with the Murray Darling system on the brink of collapse, our top-soil being blown into the Pacific Ocean and trees being cleared at a frenetic rate in regions like South East Queensland causing native fauna which were previously listed as abundant to now be listed as endangered, I wonder what it would take to convince you that our numbers have already exceeded the natural carrying capacity of this country.

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I am perfectly familiar with the false version of history which depicts Australia having been wide open to Japanese attack and ripe for the taking. I have responded in a new disssion topic "Can Australia ever be self reliant in defence" now awaiting approval.