****Election Update****

19/07/10 - Gillard presses early election panic button to avoid facing Stable Population Party Senate candidates across Australia. As a result, we have enacted Plan B - form an independent 'Senate Group' in NSW and 'do a Xenophon'.

Full details to be announced 2 August 2010 via our newsletter.

Please see our News page for important election updates.

Introduction

It is an illusion that Australia can indefinitely increase its population.

Population growth is no longer 'sustainable' and is destroying Australia's quality of life. It is causing or exacerbating most of our major economic, social and environmental problems.

Solution: Australia needs a carefully considered optimum population target for 2050, not an arbitrary and unstable 'big Australia'.

In 1994, the Australian Academy of Science held a conference to publicise its findings on population: 23 million was a safe upper level at which to stabilise Australia's population.

The following public reports broadly support this optimum population target:

- The Australian Academy of Science Report ("Population 2040; Australia's choice");
- The 1994 Barry Jones 'Carrying Capacity' Report;
- The 1 May 1992 Intergovernmental Agreement on the Environment; and
- The CSIRO Future Dilemmas Report.

As Australians see their quality of life deteriorating due to population growth pressures, this advice has proven to be very sound. We are now fast approaching this safe level and Australians of all backgrounds are craving a rational and mature debate about population size.

Political Landscape

Our political 'leaders' have deliberately given us policies that will deliver a population of 36-42 million by 2050. It was only a few years ago that the official 2050 projection was 23, then 28 million. Major western countries average about 0.25 per cent population growth a year. Ours is 2.1 per cent, or a total increase of about 450,000 last year. This 2.1 per cent growth rate equates to a doubling of our population every 33 years. It would actually take us to about 50 million by 2050 and well beyond 100 million by the turn of the century!

Although Australia is an open and tolerant country with a rich history in migration, we are now at a critical juncture with little room for error.

There is no consulting the electorate. No real democracy. Nothing was mentioned by Kevin Rudd before the last election, yet he proceeded to increase the already high annual net overseas migration level by well over 100,000 to around 300,000 by June 2009 - a record high and three times its recent average!

Around 65% of our population growth is driven by this migration policy and exacerbated by a policy of offering baby 'bonuses'. Australia has at present twice as many births as deaths, meaning we also had a large 'natural' increase of around 150,000 people in 2009. One thing a responsible Australian Government can do to achieve a stable and sustainable population is to phase out the baby bonus. Another is to reduce immigration from its record high level to around 50,000 per annum.

Our extreme population growth is clearly not inevitable, it is mainly the outcome of successive Federal Government policies, and the indifference of many Greens leaders. 

Please refer to the 'News' page for independent assessments of the extensive economic, environmental and social problems caused by high population growth.

Global Issue

Population is also a global crisis, as presented by Sir David Attenborough in his recent documentary on the BBC:

How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?

Population Media Centre ad:

http://www.populationmedia.org/where/united_states/psa-campaign/

Stable Population Party of Australia

Stable Population Party is being formed to give Australians a choice on population and the quality of life we pass on to the next generation. We also aim for Australia to become a global leader in supporting other countries experiencing rapid population growth.

Population is the debate Australia has to have.