Letter
Do Australians want a bigger or better Australia?
When Gough Whitlam opined that Australia would not need nor should it have a population of over 15 million, no one called him a xenophobe or racist.
Net overseas migration ran at around 70,000 per annum through the periods of government by Prime Ministers, Whitlam, Fraser, and Hawke-Keating. Yet, there was never a clamour for an expanded immigration policy.
Successive polls have found that the great majority of Australians dont want the Big Australia policy that proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the Rudd prime ministership.
According to TAPRI, 70% of Australians wanted lower levels of immigration, of which 42% wanted significantly lower or zero immigration when polled in 2023. The Australian Population Research Institute (February 2023). In a quick, online poll, even 65.4% of ABCs QandA audience wanted immigration numbers cut to cope with pressure on housing. QandA (August 2023).
Rapid population growth can be seen to be putting pressure on infrastructure and the economy while destabilising social cohesion and up-ending politics in nations from South Africa, to Sweden, The Netherlands, The UK, France, and Germany.
When will Australias leaders change tack to focus on a better and not bigger Australia?
— Peter Strachan from Cottesloe