Two-thirds think Melbourne’s population is growing too fast

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By Leith van Onselen

The mass immigration ‘Big Australia’ policy has clearly lost the community’s support, with the five most recent national opinion polls all showing majority support for lowering immigration:

  • Australian Population Research Institute: 54% want lower immigration;
  • Newspoll: 56% want lower immigration;
  • Essential: 54% believe Australia’s population is growing too fast and 64% believe immigration is too high;
  • Lowy: 54% of people think the total number of migrants coming to Australia each year is too high; and
  • Newspoll: 74% of voters support the Turnbull government’s cut of more than 10% to the annual permanent migrant intake to 163,000 last financial year.

Today, a Galaxy opinion poll commissioned by the Bus Association of Victoria has mirrored these results, with more than two-thirds of Victorians believing that Melbourne’s population is growing too fast. From The Herald-Sun:

MELBOURNE’S population has soared past 5 million, and two-thirds of Victorians say it is growing too fast.

According to a new poll commissioned by the Bus Association of Victoria, only 29 per cent of people say the growth rate is about right…

“Clearly, Victorians believe that too many people are flooding into Melbourne and this is affecting its liveability.”

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With Melbourne’s population soaring by 250,000 people over the past two years alone, and by 1.2 million people (33%) over the past 13-years, who could blame them?

The fact remains that as long as this mass immigration madness persists, liveability in Melbourne will be unambiguously eroded. This was explicitly projected by Infrastructure Australia, which modelled that traffic congestion would worsen, and access to jobs, schools, hospitals and open space would all deteriorate as Melbourne’s population surges past 7.3 million people by 2046:

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Why won’t politicians listen to the will of the people and slash immigration back to sensible and sustainable levels?

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.