An Australian Senator has called for the government to welcome more immigrants to the country each year in a bid to boost Australia’s population towards the 35 million mark.
Writing in The Australian newspaper, Senator Sam Datsyari from New South Wales, urged the current Labour government to support the notion of a ‘Big Australia’ – a policy that was wholly rejected by the previous Coalition government.
“A population of 35 million by 2050 should not be feared, it should be embraced,” he told the newspaper. “This is not an easy issue for Labour or the Coalition, but we must embrace immigration as a big idea for Australia’s future and win support for it in the community.”
He continued: “Increasing our population through immigration is a sensible economic decision that allows us to maintain our standard of living and care for our ageing population.
“We need to encourage the best and brightest to come to Australia. Every Frank Lowy [co-founder of the Westfield Group] or Harry Triguboff [property developer and Oz’s sixth richest man] we bring to Australia is as good as a company like Holden or Ford.”
The Senator also rejects the notion put forward by some critics of immigration that Australia is already full, pointing out that with a current population of just over 23 million people living in more than 7 million square kilometres of space, only Namibia and Mongolia have a lower population density than Australia.
Datsyari concluded his piece by writing: “The path to a big Australia involves a considerable political shift. It means confidently embracing immigration and moving away from the currently accepted notion that the Australian public won’t support or accept an increase in migration levels.
“As we head into a non-election year, we have a window of opportunity to have a real debate about our immigration numbers.”
In the 2011/12 migration year, Australia welcomed 184,998 permanent residents through its migration programme.
For more info on immigration to Australia, visit our site @ https://emigrate2.co.uk/australia/
Article published 3rd January 2014
