For those closely observing Australia, migration issues has become one of the biggest areas of contention nowadays. Indeed, with Australia's economy heavily tied with immigration, one can understand what the fuzz is all about. And the government is now hard pressed to come up with a solution to deal with the matter.
One of these solutions that has generated a lot of buzz recently is the so called sustainable population. The concept was introduced by current Prime Minister Julia Gillard during her bid to retain her position during the Federal Elections held last August. According to some political analyst, the plan is one of the factors that made Gillard win in the said elections. However, not a few groups are still doubtful if the idea of a sustainable population would indeed work for Australia.
So what is sustainable population anyways? At its most basic, sustainable population is an attempt by the government to ably manage the country's population to meet its need and further its economic growth. However, while this one might seem easy on paper, it is actually a hard one to accomplish.
One of the vital concerns with regards to the idea of a sustainable population is the fact that the country's population will nevertheless continue to grow. According to the estimates made by population experts, the number of people living in Australia is likely to hit 36 million by the year 2050.
Here, the government needs to able manage the growth of people in the country and distribute it to the areas that would need them the most. As of present, much of the country's 22 million people reside in the major coastal cities, like Sydney and Melbourne. However, these cities are now starting to get overcrowded. Thus, it is now necessary for them to expand into the country's interiors in order to handle the increase in population. However, the biggest hurdle here would be convincing people that it is indeed worthwhile to move to other areas in Australia.
Another big concern for the sustainable population plan is immigration. As it is, immigration has been the single biggest factor for population growth in Australia. Thus, it is not surprising that there are groups that are clamoring for immediate cuts on immigration numbers. However, as it turns out, this one is also easier said than done. As have been said earlier, immigration is also a vital part of Australia's immigration growth. Thus, cuts will definitely have a big effect.
The current leadership is making a definite stand for sustainable population. How this one would work, however, is something that the whole nation is waiting to see.
Image Source
http://images.watoday.com.au/2009/03/12/414498/Article_population-420x0.jpg
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