Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) sees no progress towards a sustainable environmental and economic future for Australia following the recent Federal Election.
SPA's National President, Peter Strachan says, "After expanding population by 8.6 million, or 45% over the past 25 years, Australia continues to add 553,000 people per year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics."
Population change graph sourced courtesy from the ABS.
"Of this number 449,500 people or 82 percent result from net overseas migration (NOM). Additionally, there are about 292,000 births, of which approximately 32 percent are born to women who were born overseas, and 187,700 deaths."
Mr Strachan says, "In total, this is equivalent to adding a capacity crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to Australia's population every two months. Each person needs to be housed, with water, power, access to public transport and other services like schools and medical services. Government policy initiatives in this area are totally inadequate."
Two months of population growth would be sufficient to fill the MCG.
Despite wide community support with over 70 percent of voters surveyed wanting a halt to Australia's population growth, SPA found only one party with sensible policy settings for both a sustainable population and an environmentally healthy future, while others promoting lower immigration were not motivated by environmental concerns.
