Back in October, the lobby group representing migration agents warned that South Australia’s population growth could fall to zero, and economic problems would worsen, following visa reforms by the federal government.
Thankfully, this false alarm was ridiculed by South Australian Premier, Jay Weatherill, who rejected the Migration Institute’s special pleadings:
“In South Australia over the last five years, during the Census period 2011 to 2016, (we) grew at five per cent,” he said. “That’s faster than France, it’s faster than the UK, it’s faster than the US. So in international terms population growth has been quite robust.
“In international terms, (we are) growing like a chemistry experiment. We are growing at twice the rate of the growth of the OECD, three times the rate of the growth of many countries around the world.”
When challenged about the state’s decline in population growth relative to other Australian states, he said: “We’re not running a high population growth strategy.”
“Look if you want to spend an hour and a half in traffic or spend over a million dollars for a home and actually deal with the crime and the dysfunction and the disunity that occurs in some of those other fast-growing places you’re welcome to it, but we like it here.”
During a debate over the weekend, South Australia’s opposition leaders warned that the state’s population was growing too slowly, which earned another strong rebuke from Premier Jay Weatherill. From News.com.au:
South Australian party leaders have butted heads over population growth at a debate hosted by the SA Press Club on Friday.
While SA Best leader Nick Xenophon and opposition leader Steven Marshall highlighted the state’s rate of growth as an area of concern, Premier Jay Weatherill said he was “not a high population growth person” and neither was his government.
“The notion that we’re a slow growing state is nonsense, it’s just that the rest of Australia is growing like a science experiment,” he said.
Here’s the chart of South Australia’s population growth:
Hardly looks like an “area of concern”, does it?
And here’s the chart of South Australia’s labour underutilisation rate (i.e. unemployment and underemployment combined):
With South Australia’s labour underutilisation running at 15.1% – 1.3% above the national average – where is the sense in adding to labour supply via immigration, while also placing strains on infrastructure and housing?
Well done Jay Weatherill for putting ordinary residents’ living standards and sustainability ahead of the growth lobby. We could do with you in Victoria and New South Wales, where the growth lobby runs the show and living standards are unambiguously being crush-loaded.
