Rudd changes his thoughts on migration

[furkew]

Will this mean more changes & cuts in immigarion policies?

 

Rudd flips on 'big Australia'

[kernow43]

Will this mean more changes & cuts in immigarion policies?

 

Rudd flips on 'big Australia'

I don't think he changes his mind so much as forgetting what he said before.

A few months ago he was desperate on Global warming, then hospitals, now this.

So don't worry about it, he never keeps a promise!

[olly]

Being the politician he is, and with an election looming, he seems to be having an each way bet on the population issue.

[furkew]

Being the politician he is, and with an election looming, he seems to be having an each way bet on the population issue.

 

Too true.

 

Covering all his bases I suppose.

Population, Hospitals, Global warming, illegals, etc.

[Guest chris955]

Rudd's problem is that he wants Australia to become a world power and in his mind to do that we need a big population, the problem with a big population because the vast majority of us live in a few locations is it causes huge issues with infrastructure which in a lot of cases isn't up to the job at our present population level.

It's amazing that even at the current levels of 'migration' to SE Queensland in 10 years there will be a million extra people here and the roads are already chockers at peak times.

[Guest shark]

they will have a minister for politicians,not keeping the promise next.

[Guest guest37336]

Will this mean more changes & cuts in immigarion policies?

 

Rudd flips on 'big Australia'

 

 

You can always tell when a politician is talking crap, their lips move. Yet again I reckon Mr Rudd is doing what most politicians always do. Saying what he 'thinks' the country may want to hear in order to get back into power again. The 'perceived' issues at times bear no resemblance to reality. If politicians had any backbone they would 'do' what is best, and not pander to spin doctors who seem to believe they have their fingers on the pulse of the nation , etc.

[kernow43]

Rudd's problem is that he wants Australia to become a world power and in his mind to do that we need a big population, the problem with a big population because the vast majority of us live in a few locations is it causes huge issues with infrastructure which in a lot of cases isn't up to the job at our present population level.

It's amazing that even at the current levels of 'migration' to SE Queensland in 10 years there will be a million extra people here and the roads are already chockers at peak times.

and Rudd as World President! lol

[Guest chris955]

Yes I'm sure he would willingly put his name in the barrel for that job. :biggrin:

[Bobbsy]

I'm no great fan of any politician but I have to say that, after years of Tony "focus group" Bliar and Gordon "dour bully" Brown, I found Kevin Rudd a breath of fresh air. Yes, he has his foibles but his swift action kept Australia out of recession, the only developed economy to manage this I believe. He did this while only taking Australia into a modest and manageable budget deficit.

 

Alas, this also means that the dollar is strong against the UK Peso which certainly hurts my monthly pension from Britain. However, that's specific to me and generally healthy for most Australians.

 

Regarding "Big Australia" I have to say that I was always surprised by Labour's previous support for this. Yes, Aus is a large physical area but the parts suitable for major habitation and, more important, agriculture, are a thin fragile strip around the edge. I've been living with major water restrictions since I arrived almost 3 years ago and I was really questioning how they were planning to provide basic necessities for the planned population growth.

 

I suspect any move to restrict immigration will be unpopular on a forum which, after all, is about moving from the UK to Australia. However, I can also see that too much immigration will destroy the very lifestyle that has attracted us in the first place.

 

Bob

[Petals]

Why are we blaming labour the liberals started the immigration roller coaster to support their bricks and mortar economy and labour has just continued it on. Someone has to say halt and I believe it should be slowed down, there are a lot of Australian students leaving university who cannot get jobs because of lack of experience as these jobs are being filled by migrants with experience and it cannot keep going on.

 

Of course I am happy to have the Brits come because I am one myself and I came so any cuts should be to someone else :laugh::laugh:

[Guest chris955]

I must admit I have never heard Rudd referred to as a breath of fresh air before :laugh:

 

I'm no great fan of any politician but I have to say that, after years of Tony "focus group" Bliar and Gordon "dour bully" Brown, I found Kevin Rudd a breath of fresh air. Yes, he has his foibles but his swift action kept Australia out of recession, the only developed economy to manage this I believe. He did this while only taking Australia into a modest and manageable budget deficit.

 

 

Bob

[connaust]

Australian population growth gets a laugh in some quarters as it shows the self centredness of some in Australia i.e. it is four state capitals and surrounds that suffer from population growth highlighting lack of planning and investment in services and infrastructure. More importantly, lack of regional development policy.....

[Guest chris955]

Exactly, the problem we have is that we can look at a figure of say a million people and think well in a country this size they will disappear into the background when in fact 95 % of them will go directly to the cities, as you would expect. We struggle now with the lack of infrastructure and I dread to think what will happen with 1, 2 or 5 million more.

[olly]

Agree with Petals, several young extended family members are finding it hard to get a job in their field even if there is a skill shortage. My nephew has just done 4 years at Uni and has applied for absolutley everthing under the sun but either "overqualified" which he doesn't care about as he'd take anything, or 'we're not hiring at the moment'. One family member tells me that there was 400 people applying for one part time retail position he applied for and he had to practically sing, dance, give a speech and tell his life story in 30 seconds in front of strangers to even get a look in for the job - any failure to comply with this side show was immediate failure to launch (winner/loser etc). Interesting, as our economy is supposed to be booming, share market booming, house market booming........maybe only booming for some though (as always)?

[Guest chris955]

I think you are right, booming is a relative term in the same way as recession makes us think that everyone is suddenly worse off. The fact that certain sectors of an economy are booming is irrelevant to those sectors that are struggling.

[Guest shark]

maybe he should stop spending millions on encouraging Australians to having more baby's ,and go the china route one child only.might help with population growth .

[Guest chris955]

I think you might be missing something here, we need population growth as our population is ageing fast and we need babies. Restricting families to one child would have serious detrimental affects on our population and economy.

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hiya

 

but his swift action kept Australia out of recession,

 

Are you sure???

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest guest30038]

I must admit I have never heard Rudd referred to as a breath of fresh air before :laugh:

 

Sounds and smells, more like a wet fart to me :biglaugh:

 

kev

[Guest guest30038]

I think you might be missing something here, we need population growth as our population is ageing fast and we need babies. Restricting families to one child would have serious detrimental affects on our population and economy.

 

That's because the emphasis is on the young (s) [tax dollars] supporting the old. There should be more emphasis via tax concessions, on folk providing for their own futures..........compulsorily, and do away with the aged pension.

 

kev

[connaust]

I heard former NSW (or should we say "Sydney") Premier Bob Carr on ABC demanding a decrease in immigration and/or population growth, he like most confuse the two, very different.... but in the media "migration" apparently includes temporary visitors such as students, backpackers, 457 workers, refugees etc. Makes the numbers bigger and more impressive or scarier depending upon your point of view.

 

Further, like most in politics, media etc. he ignores nor ever mentions regional development, but ironically the (quite conservative) National Farmers' Federation NFF have recently announced a policy on population and regional development, through new tax system, via media release below.

 

Tax to trigger release valve for choking cities

. THE Rudd Government is uniquely placed to solve this country’s perennial failure to develop and service major population and commercial centers outside of capital cities, the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) advanced today, releasing its Issues Paper Population Policy: A Taxing Issue.

 

“With the release of the Henry tax review imminent, it’s time to seriously deal with population policy in Australia and pull the tax trigger to re-energize and grow the under-developed 97% of the country that is regional Australia,” NFF President David Crombie declared.

 

“It’s an investment long overdue, but it’s also a solution to Australia’s unsustainable coastal city-centric population headache, with our major cities already suffocating under the weight of a national population of just 22 million people.

 

“In fact, about 88% of our total population is crammed into and around small coastal recesses, mainly Sydney and Newcastle, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth – that’s just 3% of the landmass.”

 

I am sure those from abroad find Australia lopsided in its lack of substantial numbers of inland regional cities compared internationally, but not helped by the federation of states and state powers under the constitution where power and resources lie in state capitals.