Australia is full to bursting and must rethink immigration

I believe we are on our way to destroying Australia as we know it today. Renowned building developer Harry Triguboff wants an Australia of 150 million people. My friend the billionaire retailer Gerry Harvey says Australia’s population is more likely to grow to 100 million by the end of the century and we have no control over it. How can that be? Surely as a democracy we have control over the size of our country.

After two years of extensive research, I produced a 20-page Fair Go manifesto. It explains what experts say we need to do to fix this crucial problem. Most importantly, it’s clear that most of our population growth is coming from record immigration levels and our government has complete control of that.

My document also links population growth with the rapid increase in the disparity of wealth in our country. Australia’s wealthiest 1 per cent owns more than the bottom 70 per cent — that’s 17 million Aussies.

Eight out of the 10 wealthiest countries, per capita, have populations of less than 10 million. At the same time, countries such as Japan, Germany and Italy have population growth running at close to zero, or even negative.

Three months ago, I launched my Fair Go campaign supported by $1 million of television advertisements focusing on the impossibility of endless growth. The campaign highlighted how every time a politician says “growth”, he or she means “endless growth”, and that’s not possible in a finite world.

Since the launch of the Fair Go campaign, the major points have received little coverage and many journalists have misinterpreted my proposals and claimed that I am running an anti-immigration campaign. That is the opposite of my beliefs. I am a strong supporter of immigration but believe it should be set at sensible and sustainable levels of about 70,000 immigrants a year, rather than today’s 200,000.

In my Fair Go document, I mention Canberra academic Mark O’Connor’s book on population, Overloading Australia. In one chapter, he writes about what he considers to be clear bias by ABC television news and current affairs regarding the population issue.

Few would disagree that as a nation we’ve yet to have a proper discussion about population. Right now we are engaged in endless dialogue about gay marriage, which is an important human rights issue but surely just as important is accepting that we have to live in balance and need a population policy to achieve this.

Sadly, some politicians have told me they can’t talk about the population issue because they will be labelled by some in the media (and the ABC, in particular) as “anti-immigration”. They reckon that would be a death knell for re-election, considering that so many Australians are immigrants and of immigrant parents.

However, I will not give up. I remember when I called for a proper trial for David Hicks and many in the media distorted that into a claim that I was a supporter of Hicks. In most radio interviews, after consistently being introduced as “a supporter of David Hicks”, I would have to explain that I wasn’t a supporter of Hicks; I just wanted him to have a proper trial.

When it comes to my concern about population, I am not a lone eccentric. Eight out of 10 Australians believe we should have a population policy. It is common sense. Every Australian family has a population policy of its own. Parents could have 20 kids, but they don’t. Most choose to have the number of children to whom they can give a good life.

As a country we need to do the same and we need our politicians to be completely open and game to talk about this important issue.

The results of the New Zealand election should make it clear to our major parties that population and, consequently, immigration numbers are of concern to voters.