So what and why? What are the issues? Is it numbers, age distribution, location or what else is important?
The numbers are 22 million now and rising to somewhere between 25 and 36 million depending on which report you listen to.
This is an immensely complex area and while infrastructure was being mentioned in the news this morning, I haven’t heard too much about the environmental flow on effects and the limits of resources.
The world population is growing and one big result of that is more fighting over available resources. This happens within countries and also when outside countries want the resources like oil. Some even go to war for the right to be peaceful which seems peculiar until you realise that they are really fighting for the right to own the land – so it is resources again.
That is going to be the big issue in Australia. We’ve got plenty of land but people all want to live on the best agricultural land and share the same infrastructure in that particular space. Already we are importing large amounts of our seafood as stocks get lower and the recreational sector with larger voting power catch 50% of the fish caught. Professional fishers are being pushed out of business -another example of resource limitation.
It is inevitable that people will come here and our migration will increase.
Heather Riddout, head of the Australian Industries Group pointed out that we actually need young migrants to address our aging population issue. At present we have 5 tax payers for each aged person and without young migration or a massive birth-rate, by 2050 we will only have 2.5 tax payers per aged person. This is certainly a serious issue as we all hate paying tax and this is also the root of the health debate as well.
Fine, but we need suitable infrastructure, water, food, energy, healthcare, waste management and transport. I suspect we need new cities where there is water and agricultural land to feed people. This is contrary to the trend we have had of reduction in the facilities in regional centres.
A very interesting development is the sea-change and tree-change phenomenon when retirees move to regional locations for a change of lifestyle. They frequently object to local industry because they moved there for a peaceful lifestyle. They also forget that in 5, 10 or so years, they will have increasing needs for medical help and this is less available in rural areas. The changed house values restrict many of them from moving back to the cities for hospital treatment
Although many are very environmentally friendly in their motives, they do not understand how to minimise their footprint in their new location or the issues of living with minimal internet, only SWER power and providing their own water supply. (SWER – single wire earth return and highly fluctuating in voltage in my experience.)
It is inevitable that people will come here and our migration will increase but the big issue is how we manage this so that we do minimise the impacts both on our environment and our lifestyle.
Jean Cannon

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