The Australian media has already begun to spread a web of lies over the federal budget’s population projections, warning of a dire population collapse.
According to The Age, the latest budget forecasts will see “Victoria’s population down 400,000“:
The state worst-hit by the pandemic is now expected to have almost 400,000 fewer people by the end of 2022 than was forecast pre-COVID…
The state is forecast to be $3.7 billion worse off in GST payments compared with last year’s estimate, with $15.1 billion in receipts now expected in 2020-21…
The massive revision to the state’s population growth will delay Melbourne’s much-anticipated race to overtake Sydney as the nation’s biggest city, which had been expected by 2025.
Of course, if you actually look at the Budget forecasts, you will see that Victoria’s population is forecast to increase by 238,000 by 2023-24:
Moreover, while Victoria may “be $3.7 billion worse off in GST payments compared with last year’s estimate”, it won’t have to provide additional infrastructure, medical care, schooling, and other social services for the extra 400,000 people that never arrived – equivalent to nearly a Canberra’s worth of population.
That’s only $9,250 of GST revenue lost per extra person that won’t arrive – an excellent financial outcome for the government, given it would have had to spend far more in extra services for these people.
Next on the liar’s list is Sky News’ political correspondent Andrew Clennell, who claimed that “by the end of the decade, there will be a million less Australians in this country. This is people we’ll never get back”. Clennell then claimed that “this loss in population… is the biggest threat to the economy” and is why “the government has to pump these tens-of-billions of dollars into the economy to keep unemployment low” and that “we will return to pre-War Australia in terms of growth”:
If Clennell had a shred of honesty, he would have stated that Australia’s population is not projected in the Budget to decline. But rather, that our population will merely grow more slowly than the turbo-charged pace forecast before COVID-19 hit:
Rather than being viewed as a disaster, this lower level of population growth will provide Australia with a unique opportunity to catch-up on infrastructure investment, which fell badly into deficit following 15 years of extreme immigration. It will also encourage the economy to transition away from unsustainable, quantity-based ‘dumb’ growth centred around people servicing to actual productivity and export led growth.
Nothing good comes from forever crush-loading infrastructure, housing, and the natural environment. Moreover, the last thing unemployed Australians need is to compete for scarce jobs against low wage migrants. This will only lower wages even more and destroy Australia’s working class.
Nordic countries are regarded as being among the most advanced, happiest and well-functioning in the world with the highest living standards. They have achieved these results without mass immigration and rapid population growth:
Australia should seek to emulate these nations by focusing on maximising productivity and individual living standards instead of dumb quantity-based growth.
