Mr Peter Strachan, National President, Sustainable Population Australia
As stated by Mr Strachan
"The tone set by organisers of the 'March for Australia' has led to understandable concerns about possible infiltration from far right groups."
"The March has also provided perfect fodder for the promoters of Big Australia to claim any opposition to high immigration is racist and xenophobic, as it is in their interest to suffocate any questioning of immigration settings."
"The result is confusion and wariness of the march by fair-minded Australians who are nonetheless concerned about the extraordinary levels of population growth in Australia in recent decades."
"There is no more sure-fire way to drive people to political extremes than to dismiss sensible and respectful debate about Australia's population future."
Mr Michael Bayliss, Spokesperson and Communications Manager, Sustainable Population Australia
As stated by Mr Bayliss
"The evidence is clear that population numbers matter, scale matters and rates of growth matter."
"These population pressures raise mounting public concerns in Australia. The simplest way to reduce these tensions is to progressively slow the population growth rate and ultimately bring Australia to a stable population size under 30 million."
"The social-democratic government in Denmark has shown how to neutralise the far right by engaging with community concerns about immigration, rather than ignoring them."
"As a science-based organisation focused solely on the numbers, SPA must remain politically independent. This ensures people from across the political spectrum can engage in a genuine conversation about how large Australia's population should be and how it is best distributed. For this reason, SPA is not aligned with this march."
"While SPA itself is not associated with the march, we recognise some of our members may take part. To dismiss all participants as far right only deepens social division. In reality, most are ordinary Australians concerned about housing costs, congestion, overstretched services and ecological decline.
"This march should serve as a wake-up call to move beyond emotive sound bites and instead foster an open, rational and respectful, science-based conversation about Australia's future population growth."
Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) has a proud record over nearly four decades, of advocating for a middle ground where Australians can have a conversation about population and immigration settings, free from racism or slurs of racism and supportive, not only of human rights but also the rights of nature.
