This is a dramatic turn of events
First it was Kelvin Thomson MP and now Bob Carr former Premier of NSW speaking out strongly about the increase of population being forced on us by Federal and State. Will this strike a chord and open Pandora's box for the government?. Will the silent majority finally speak out?
Population numbers is the factor behind our planning and development woes and also helping to wreck our environment.
"In March the Australian Bureau of Statistics projected that one scenario, with ramped-up immigration, could mean a population as high as 42.5 million by 2056. Its mid-range scenario comes in at 35.5 million.
I need only summarise the indictments of such high-end population growth. It assumes rainfall reliability not reflected in any known data. It ignores evidence that high immigration has only a marginal impact on age distribution over the long term. It glides over the proof marshalled by Ross Gittins that high immigration worsens, not relieves, skill shortages. It also spikes the cost of land and cruels housing affordability."
Bob Carr has spoken out strongly this morning in a truly major article in the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, but it did not get printed in the Age, though it is on their website, only printed in the Sydney Morning Herald.
In his article, Carr makes clear just how irresponsible the behavior of bureaucrats and governments has been. For instance he says,
"Yet none of the Canberra bureaucrats who ticked off high immigration were required to link rising population numbers to water. Not to the fragility of the Murray and Adelaide's reliance on it for 90 per cent of its drinking water; to the unpredictability of south-east Queensland's rainfall; or to the unknowns about Perth's Yarragadee aquifer. ... Letting annual arrivals blow out to 500,000 a year required not even a one-page summary of environmental implications.",/blockquote>
As he puts it, there is now a deepening "rift valley between 90 per cent of Australians and their political and business leadership over population policy, or rather the absence of any policy except "more".
If you want to comment on Carr's article, the email addresses for letters to the editor are
[email protected] [email protected]
[email protected]Below is the link to the article.
Perish the thought that we can handle a bigger population
by Bob Carr,
November 19, 2009
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/perish-the-thought-that-we-can-handle-a-bigger-population-20091118-imfv.html
Comments
Vivienne (not verified)
Fri, 2009-11-20 08:44
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Planning means infrastructure, and money!
Tree (not verified)
Fri, 2009-11-20 18:44
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ABC promotes growth ideology again in 'Housing for Millions'
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