Sustainable Population Australia

Videos of KELVIN THOMSON and all panel speakers have been added to this article. Open mic part now published here too. Today, June 14, 2014, a packed hall with people standing at the back in the Hawthorn Arts Centre voted for a national plebiscite to ask the people what size population they wanted. The forum interacted with a panel of four speakers: Kelvin Thomson, MP for Wills; Sheila Newman, Evolutionary Sociologist and Candobetter.net editor and writer; Clifford Hayes, former Bayside Council Mayor and planning activist; and William Bourke, Leader of the Sustainable Population Party. There was a queue for the open microphone and the meeting closed later than expected. All motions passed with an overwhelming show of hands.

Packed meeting in Hawthorn backs vote on Victoria’s population

We will probably replace this film with another from another angle which recorded the size of the audience, the applause and the show of hand on the motions. In the meantime this gives the content of the Open Microphone session.

The Hawthorn Arts Centre was the venue for a large public meeting today asking the question “Must Melbourne keep growing?” Speakers, Hon. Kelvin Thomson MP, Ms. Sheila Newman, evolutionary sociologist, Mr. Clifford Hayes, former Bayside mayor and Planning activist and Mr. William Bourke president of “ Sustainable Population Party” all addressed the meeting with the ultimate message that Melbourne does not have to keep growing. The audience was given the floor for the open mic second hour of the program and took full advantage of this. The meeting voted unanimously for the federal government to hold a national vote on Australia’s population aiming to stabilise by 2040:

''That, on the basis of State of the Environment reports and in the interests of democracy, the meeting calls on the federal government to hold a national vote on population at or before the next federal election, with a proposal to allow Australia to stabilise its population by 2040. A working group will be formed by concerned citizens in order to draft an appropriate question."

Meeting voted for Gov to have scientific conference re long-term sustainable population

Additionally the meeting voted unanimously for the Victorian Government to convene a scientifically based conference to establish the long term sustainable population for the state, on a motion proposed by Ms Julianne Bell, of Protectors of Public Land:

"That this meeting calls on the Victorian government to convene a scientifically based Victorian conference on what constitutes a long term environmentally sustainable population for Victoria, with reference to the Victorian State of the environment reports of 2008 and 2013 indicating environmental damage from current population levels."

According to the President of Sustainable Population Australia’s Victorian and Tasmanian branch, Ms. Jill Quirk, ”The first resolution is to give the Australian people the right to determine their own quality of life and quality of the environment for the present and future. The second is asking the government to undertake its absolute responsibility and to stop the reckless, irreversible destruction caused by needless rapid population growth and over development happening now.”

This coming Saturday July 20th, 2.00 p.m. at the Annual General meeting of Sustainable Population Australia, Victorian and Tasmanian branch at the Balwyn Library meeting room, guest speaker, Dr. Bob Birrell of Monash University's, Centre for Population and Urban Research will address the facts and figures which explain "Why is immigration running at record high levels when unemployment is increasing?"

Dr. Birrell says:

"The Australian government is running a record high migration program. Recent arrivals are adding massively to Australia's workforce each year. About 100,000 have found employment in each of the past two years. This is about the same as the total annual growth in the employed workforce in Australia since 2011. As a result they are squeezing out resident workers from employment, particularly young people looking for entry level jobs. This is why the number of Australian born persons on unemployment benefits is increasing by around 50,000 a year.

"The most striking increase in the overseas born numbers is among those in Australia on temporary visas (including 457s, working holiday makers and students). The stock of these temporaries (most of whom have work rights) increased from 1.03 million in December 2010 to 1.13 million in December 2012."

President of Sustainable Population Australia, Victorian and Tasmanian branch, Jill Quirk says:

"Whilst Sustainable Population Australia evolved from concern about the environmental impacts of an ever growing population on the most arid and infertile inhabited continent, the organisation has a broader scope, aiming to contribute to public awareness of the limits of Australian population growth from ecological, social and economic viewpoints.

"Dr. Birrell's talk this Saturday will be of critical interest to all those who care not only about population impacts on the environment but also about the employment climate which confronts those not in secure employment, especially young people who have not yet had a chance to acquire much of a work history. We look forward very much to hearing Dr. Birrell's important talk and commend it especially to policy makers and journalists all of whom are welcome to attend."

Contact, for further information: Jill Quirk, President, Sustainable Population Australia, Victorian and Tasmanian branch,

0409742927

www.population.org.au

Once again members of the Victorian and Tasmanian Branch of Sustainable Population Australia braved the usual dreadful hot conditions at the Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne, which has just come to an end.

Candobetter supports SPA's message and admires SPA Victoria.  We salute them for their almost single handed contribution to opening debate in Victoria on population numbers.

Jill Quirk, the President of the Victorian Branch, has shown great skill in bringing together various conservation and environment organisations, as well as planning activists, together on the issue of population growth.

It is hard to imagine that only a few years ago most environmental and planning activists actually could not see the connection. Although they could see the connection between development and loss of ammenity, democracy and natural environment, they still believed the government's dishonest pretention that population growth in Victoria was falling. They did not understand what was pushing overdevelopment and they often did not realise that their local problems were repeated not just in other suburbs, but in other states, all across Australia.

Despite some attempts to silence debate from bullies who claim affiliation with Right to Life, the Socialist Alliance and the (non-incorporated) Refugee Action Alliance and seem to work to the advantage of developers and government, it has become possible to educate more people on what is actually happening, as our government tries to engineer our population and deprive communities of natural ammenity and citizens of reasonable rights to enjoy their property.

It is through the experience of trying to stop forced population engineering for commercial purposes that only bring benefits to a very narrow minority that more and more people are realising that effective democracy in Australia is an illusion.  We may be able to talk, but we have little or no means to organise and act.

Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) has called on the new Immigration Minister, Brendan O’Connor, to heed the findings of a paper issued yesterday. It found that the number of migrants arriving in Australia since the beginning of 2011 who found jobs about equals the number of new jobs created in Australia for everyone over the same period.

The paper was written by Professor Bob Birrell and Ernest Healy of the Centre for Population and Urban Research (CPUR), Monash University.

SPA National President, Ms Sandra Kanck, says this has had harmful impact on employment levels and working conditions of ‘incumbent’ Australians, particularly young people. Incumbents include migrants who arrived prior to 2011 as well as Australians born here.

“Since 2010, employment growth has slowed to about 100,000 a year,” says Ms Kanck. “Yet permanent immigration keeps increasing and is now at a record high level of 210,000 for the 2012-13 program year.

“This is on top of very high numbers of temporary migrants who might also work – 457 and working holiday visa holders, students and New Zealanders. There are over one million temporary migrants living in Australia now,” says Ms Kanck.

“Australia still has strong natural increase in its workforce, with the number of people turning 18 outnumbering those turning 65 by 80,000 per year. No extra jobs were made available to those young jobseekers over the past two years. Each one who found a job left an older worker unemployed.

“As a first step, the new Minister must match the immigration program to the number of jobs available and not disadvantage incumbent Australians, especially young people. Youth unemployment in northern Adelaide suburbs is now 42.6 per cent. It is also unacceptably high in the western suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney.

“As a second step, the Minister should note that immigration makes up 58 per cent of Australia’s very high annual population growth rate of 1.6 per cent. By cutting immigration, he will reduce population growth. This is vital for preserving the environment and for many other social reasons such as reducing housing unaffordability and hospital waiting times.”

The environmental group at the centre of the controversy between its national president, Hon. Sandra Kanck, and the Australian Democrats has countered claims by those who expelled Ms Kanck that it is a political party.

Spokesperson for Sustainable Population Australia (SPA), Dr Jane O’Sullivan, says that SPA is recognised by the Dept of Environment (SEWPAC) as an environmental group, a prerequisite for obtaining tax deductible status through the Australian Tax Office. The regulations governing this are strict and include one that precludes any association with a political party, let alone running candidates for office as a party.

“For its 24 year history, SPA has had a mix of members from all walks of life and from all political parties. These include Labor, Liberal, National, Greens, Australian Democrats, Stable Population Party and the Stop Population Growth Party,” says Dr O’Sullivan.

“SPA is very mindful of being independent of political parties,” she says. “We are a lobby group that seeks to inform the public and policymakers of the need for an ecologically sustainable population.

“Because an ecologically sustainable population is less than the one we have at current standards of living, SPA calls for an end to population growth through lower migration and birth rates.

“It thus comes as no surprise that the leader of the coup against Ms Kanck, John Davey, is a migration agent who clearly has a vested interest in either maintaining or increasing migration levels,” says Dr O’Sullivan. “That is what this dispute is really all about.”

Dr O’Sullivan says that the national executive of SPA acknowledges the huge amount of work Ms Kanck undertook in trying to keep the Australian Democrats viable.

“This has, however, been entirely separate from the work she has done for over three years in running our organisation,” she says.

By upwards engineering population growth, the Victorian and Australian Governments are showing disregard of "ultimate deprivation" and leaving "future generations with the task of rationing energy, oil and food..."

Today, Friday, 18thth November, 2011, Sustainable Population Australia, Victorian Branch president, Jill Quirk has condemned Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy's recently announced approval of a development at Clyde North of up to 6600 houses covering more than 400 hectares to expand the population by 18,500.

The previous Victorian Government's ‘Victoria in the Future’ (VIF) projections estimated that Casey could reach a population of 370,000 by 2026 which is larger than the present city of Canberra.

No food at the Infill

“Due to government growth policies, we are risking future food security by destroying prime agricultural land for new housing estates. As one of Australia’s most fertile and valuable agriculture areas, Casey should be preserved for the vital role of food production. Casey has a favorable climate, topography, fertile soils, supportive transport and recycled water infrastructure. With climate change, limited arable soil and oil depletion, Australia needs markets close to cities as Casey is to Melbourne.” said Ms. Quirk

Dangerous Government engineering of population growth in Victoria

“The push for ever more population growth by governments and business is denying us the chance of an environmentally sustainable future. The apparent lack of real long term thinking with regard to population and the emphasis on the electoral cycle from our politicians will leave future generations with the task of rationing energy, oil and food, and untangling the transport gridlock. The Victorian government should now concentrate on providing reliable transport services to the existing outer suburbs rather than seeking to swell these areas with anther million people by 2025.”

“Instead of planning and policies based on growth and the disregard of ultimate deprivations, we need policies based on realistic appraisals of our long term needs, a sustainable population, and sustainable economy” said Ms Quirk.

Further comment: ph. Jill Quirk, President Sustainable Population Australia (Victorian branch) 0409742927.
(The patrons of Sustainable Population Australia are Patrons: Hon Bob Carr, Dr Paul Collins, Prof Tim Flannery, Prof Ian Lowe, Dr Mary E White.)

"Despite this grim picture, unlike global population growth, our own population future is very much under our control and we need not be overwhelmed. Stability of population numbers is within our reach this century. We owe it to Victorians who will be born 50 years from now to take control so that those who come after us can enjoy what we have enjoyed – clean air and water and reliable food and housing supplies. To do nothing is the real crime against humanity." Jill Quirk, President, Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) Victoria.

Today, 28 October 2011, Jill Quirk, President of the Victorian Branch of Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) spoke about the frightening trends in human population growth world-wide and in Victoria and Australia. Her message was that, despite the fact that Victoria and Australia are part of the overpopulation problem, it is still possible to stop before we are overwhelmed. Politicians and the commercial interests they serve by fanning local population growth here need to be made instead to serve the public good by stabilising our population.

"On October 31st the world’s population will zoom past the 7 billion mark just 12 years after reaching 6 billion. Despite taking all of human history up to 1800 to reach 1 billion, many seem to think the phenomenon of ever increasing human numbers is inevitable and normal!" said President Quirk.

"Globally we are growing at the expense of the environment on which we depend, threatening our water, air and food security. Our numbers are impacting on all the other creatures with whom we share the planet."

Ms Quirk said that, to many, the global human population “explosion” seems so vast that it is difficult to see how we might ever exert control over it.

"No one can be sure when this staggering increase might reach its zenith. We do know however that growth, even slower growth cannot continue forever."

Despite the impression we are given that "For those who've come across the seas, we've boundless plains to share," [1] we are running out of pure fresh freely accessible water, our few good soils are being impoverished and built over in Victoria, or threatened by extreme mining technologies like gas-fracking. Yes, our population is growing much too rapidly and is already too big. But this is not because of natural growth, it is because of government policy for extreme immigration numbers.

"Sadly, Victoria’s population also grows very rapidly cheered on by vested interests, lobbyists and the government. This growth and associated development is destructive to coastal areas, waterways and biodiversity, all of which also struggle with a changing climate," says Jill Quirk.

On a more optimistic note, however, she adds, "Despite this grim picture, unlike global population growth, our own population future is very much under our control and we need not be overwhelmed. Stability of population numbers is within our reach this century."

She says, "We owe it to Victorians who will be born 50 years from now to take control so that those who come after us can enjoy what we have enjoyed – clean air and water and reliable food and housing supplies.

To do nothing is the real crime against humanity."

We are often given the impression and even schoolchildren receive this propaganda that Australia is nearly empty and should therefore take on as many people as wish to come here, as if this arid continent could somehow act as a relief valve for the rest of this enormous planet. In fact Australia is already very densely populated on the thin green fringes around its southern and Eastern coasts, but very sparsely populated in the interior. There is a reason for this settlement pattern. Climate, rainfall and soil fertility make much of Australia almost uninhabitable for industrial society. Quite a bit of Australia is dry hot desert, similar to the Gobi Desert in China, which is also sparsely populated. Contiguous to Australia's deserts are rangelands. Those parts contain some mines and rangeland grazing, but little else. Even when only Aboriginal peoples lived here they only occupied the rangelands in very low numbers, which they kept low with very strict marriage laws that limited fertility opportunity for clan members.

Sustainable Population Australia (Victorian branch)
www.population.org.au
Patrons: Hon Bob Carr, Dr Paul Collins, Prof Tim Flannery, Prof Ian Lowe, Dr Mary E White

[1] From "Advance Australia Fair," Australia's National Anthem.

SPA Population Film Festival - Brisbane Sunday 4 June 2011, Event supported by The Stable Population Party Australia. Details below.

Population Film Festival - Brisbane, Sunday, 04 June 2011 19:13

there

Recent documentaries and short films on a pivotal issue for our planet.   SUNDAY 28 AUGUST 2011 TRIBAL THEATRE 346 GEORGE ST, BRISBANE Purchase tickets online at OzTix. Great value Festival Pass -- see all films for only $25 !! See summary program below, or view detailed program notes here.

  Program:

10:00am How many people can live on Planet Earth? 2009. (60 min.). Note: Admission to this film is for Festival Pass holders only.

In this BBC Horizon special, naturalist Sir David Attenborough investigates whether the world is heading for a population crisis.

 11:30am Mother: caring for 7 billion.  2011.  (55 min.) Tiroir A Films.  Australian Premiere. Ticket price: $13

A courageous and sensitive new film that shows how population silently fuels our largest environmental, humanitarian and social crises, and finds hope in the empowerment of women. View trailer at http://www.motherthefilm.com/trailer. 

 Followed by public forum on global aspects of the population issue.

 1:30pm A smorgasbord of short films to munch on.  FREE admission with any other ticket from this Festival.

Arithmetic, population and energy. (30 min.)  Physicist Professor Al Bartlett’s classic lecture on exponential growth rates.
Empty handed: responding to the demand for contraceptives. (8 min.)  Women’s lack of access to reproductive health supplies in sub-Saharan Africa.
Immigration, World Poverty and Gumballs - Updated 2010.  (6 min.)  A colourful and unforgettably graphic test of the rationale for current U.S. immigration levels.

 3:00pm Dick Smith’s population puzzle. 2010 (60 min.) A Simon Nasht film.  Ticket price: $13

Follows the journey of famous Australian Dick Smith as he explores the population issue for Australia.

 4:30pm State of siege: from the green bans of the 1970s to the present. 2011. Tropic of Oz Independent Films. Queensland Premiere.  Ticket price: $13

Dennis Grosvenor’s new documentary on Sydney’s conflict between developers and residents, political patronage, the loss of democracy, and the arrogance of power. 

 Followed by public forum on Australian aspects of the population issue.

TICKETS

Tickets for sale online and at the door. 
Purchase tickets online at OzTix. Great value Festival Pass -- see all films for only $25 !!

Teas, coffee and snacks available, including tasty vegan hot dogs!

Cinema discount parking available in Tank street.    Roma Street rail and bus station is nearby.

This event is presented by Sustainable Population Australia.           www.population.org.au      Enquiries: seq @ population.org.au

Supported by the Stable Population Party    www.populationparty.com

The government has ignored the environmental submission to the sustainable population strategy public consultation, (led by Terry Burke MP), says former senator Sandra Kanck, who is president of Sustainable Population Australia.

The results of the Government’s consultation on a population strategy for Australia show that the process was only ever for show, says environment group, Sustainable Population Australia (SPA).

SPA’s President, Sandra Kanck, says that the outcome is what Minister Burke started off saying, which was that the solution to our population problem was to move people around the countryside.

Superficial solution like shifting chairs on the deck of the Titanic

“This is nothing short of the deck-chairs on the Titanic solution: put them in clusters on one part of the deck or spread them evenly, the Titanic will still sink.

“There seems to be little understanding that every new person arriving on this continent either as a migrant or a newborn will ultimately be demanding the same standard of living as the rest of us.

The ice submerged in the future

“Just like other Australians they will need water, food, petrol for their cars, hospitals for their health needs, and more power stations, and each of them will be responsible for the release of still more greenhouse gases, regardless of whether they live in the city or the country.

“This is a huge disappointment – despite the large numbers of submissions to the inquiry which recognised the environmental implications of continued population growth, the Government has ignored them.

“This government has demonstrated that (a) it has no understanding of the environment and (b) it remains captive to the development lobby,” said Ms Kanck.

Sustainable Population Australia

SPA is a group which began around 1988 [1] (as Australians for an Ecologically Sustainable Population). It has sought to educate Australians about the fragility of their country and the limits to population growth. It has approached the political problem of population growthism by appealing to the authorities via established channels. SPA self-organises through committees, which have tended to have a top-heavy concentration in Canberra. SPA is a tax deductible environmental organisation which, under the rules of tax-deductibility, cannot be seen to be a political lobby-group.

The Stable Population Party Australia and the Animal Justice Party

Due to these characteristics, SPA cannot innovate theory or become the base of political groups. A political group, The Stable Population Party, started up last year. This group attempts to reach the public through the mainstream press. This group may suffer from an inability to attract people who are suffering from the impacts of population growth because they do not recognise the cause of the increasing social and environmental costs they are paying for, nor do they realise that they are not alone; that the entire Australian population is paying dearly for this undemocratic process. So, although a lot of people have joined the Stable Population Party, more would join if they had better understanding of how population growthism affects us all. For instance, an example of another party with an interest in stable or shrinking population is the Animal Justice Party. It is because the members of one and the members of the other respond to different cues and political paradigms that we have two parties instead of one.

Candobetter.net's role is to promote your voice, whatever party or group you belong to or do not belong to

Candobetter tries to bring all these actors and groups together and provide them with diverse platforms to educate and reach diverse groups. We believe that a large part of our problem is Australia's political system, which is authoritarian, over-arching, and contemptuous of citizens, who have few or no rights. The mainstream media is a part of this political system. Candobetter writers tend to write for the alternative internet media because they no longer have faith that local and citizens' appeals to the establishment media and government process will work.

Please consider, whether you are in a political party or an environment group, that supporting the few voices at the top of that group will not be enough. Your own voice is very valuable but it won't find comprehensive expression in hierarchical groups and committees, nor in participating in government 'forums'. We urge you to express yourselves on candobetter. We don't censor, we don't have meetings, and we don't try to organise you, but we provide a valuable forum.

[1] This was originally written as 1998 instead of 1988. It was on 26 May 2011.