[url=http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/research/_pdf/physical-implications-migration-report-1.pdf]Research into the long-term physical implications of Net Overseas Migration July 2010[/url]
National Institute of Labour Studies Flinders University School of the Environment and CSIRO Sustainable
Ecosystems Department of Immigration and Citizenship
If you’ve ever felt that population growth was turning into a problem in Australia this report will show you are 100% right.
It is a careful expert study that finds nothing but serious problems of water supply oil supply greenhouse gas emissions waste and size of the urban footprint from ANY net overseas migration (that is more people coming to Australia than leaving it).
The news in the report is so bad that the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) chose Christmas Eve of 2010 to release it. No wonder we didn’t hear about it.
The Report shows that by 2050 Australia will face] a doubling to a tripling of greenhouse emissions a looming oil dependence increased traffic congestion and critical water shortages in three capital cities. The Immigration Department has very good reason to know that none of the levels of immigration or work-force growth it has recently pursued are either responsible or compatible with a sustainable population.
Indeed a graph on page 132 of the report suggests the oil situation will be disastrous for all but the zero NOM scenario. As well nitrate fertilisers without which Australia could not feed even its present population are made with enormous energy inputs from oil or natural gas; and their price tracks the upward curve of energy prices.
Even more disastrously the world is running out of phosphate fertilisers which Australia’s soils desperately need. Price has tripled quality is falling and supply is erratic. Hence Long-Term Implications finds in effect that Dick Smith is right: “The security of production of food in Australia (and imported from overseas) is in question” it says (pp 129-130).
This is bad news for the legions of corporate suits who see rapid population growth as the only way to maintain their cash flow in an economy based on house building personal consumption and mining.
[url=http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/australias-population-policy-is-like-dolly-parton/]Barney Foran: Population policy is driven by the Dolly Parton syndrome.[/url]
[url=http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/44896.html]Mark O’Connor (The Drum): Immigration Department Report shows Australia’s population growth is irresponsible [/url]