ABC 7.30 Report population special (Part 2)

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By Leith van Onselen

ABC 7.30 Report last night aired part two of its three-part population special (see my comments on part one here). I haven’t bothered to download it, since I received zero airtime, but you can watch it for yourself here.

Once again, it was a massive disappointment whose critical failure was that it avoided altogether the fact the ‘Big Australia’ mass immigration program is a direct policy choice, not a thing that comes from heaven and there’s nothing we can do.

We are simply told by The ABC that Australia will be 40-plus million people mid-century and Sydney and Melbourne will be 8-million people, so we better get used to it. It’s inevitable.

It even showed Lucy Turnbull’s “three cities” plan without acknowledging that the lion’s share of the population growth is projected to occur in Sydney’s West, while the wealthy Inner East takes minimal additional population.

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Sure, the segment gave lip service to some of the pains that come from growth, and featured some sceptics like Dick Smith and Tim Flannery. But it then brushed those aside as easily managed if we simply plan and invest better, with some soothing words from Infrastructure Australia’s chief (completely ignoring her own organisation’s research and recent warnings), a cookie cutter ANU ‘demographer, a few state and local government representatives, and an “economic and social forecaster” who arrogantly claimed Australia can easily take 200 million people without adversely effecting the environment or quality of life. We are also told that increasing density is good and won’t destroy quality of life.

The overall message from The ABC is that Australia has heaps of space and the population growth is inevitable, so we better get used to it. Of course, I vigorously challenged these claims in my 30-minute interview with Andy Park, but have been completely ignored.

In my interview, I explained that by simply returning immigration back to the historical average of 70,000 per year, we could ensure Australia only hits around 32 million people mid-century, with Sydney and Melbourne only hitting around 6.5 million people, thus safeguarding living standards.

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I also debunked the common claims about skills shortages, population ageing, etc, while also calling for a population plebiscite so that Australian voters can determine how big they want the country to become.

All the key parts of my interview have so far been left on the cutting room floor.

Let’s hope part three of this report lifts its game. I am not hopeful.

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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.