Four Corners: Mar 12
Four Corners and Q&A will together pose questions on Australian cities straining under population growth.
- Published by David Knox
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Ben Knight’s report on “Big Australia” next on Four Corners asks if we are ready for population growth?
It will be followed by a Q&A episode debating the arguments.
The numbers tell the story. Australia’s population is growing fast. Across the country, we’ve added almost 400,000 people in the last year alone. The populations of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth have expanded by nearly three million extra people in the last 10 years. And we’re feeling the strain.
“You just can’t go exponentially like that and not expect there not to be some sort of consequences.” Bernard Salt, The Demographics Group
Australians living in our big cities are experiencing crippling commute times, over-crowded public transport, school shortages and an under supply of affordable housing.
“It’s not a choice, it’s forced on people. I don’t think that’s wonderful for our future.” Dick Smith, businessman
And our population is set to get even bigger. There’ll be almost 40 million of us by the middle of the century.
It’s time for the nation to have a conversation about how big Australia is going to grow.
“It might be an uncomfortable conversation but it’s necessary. In order for Australia to be the country we want it to be.” Dr Liz Allen, demographer
On Monday night Four Corners investigates what a “Big Australia” will mean and the difficult choices that will have to be made.
“Do you have fences and turnstiles? Do you start to ration access? That’s the sort of dystopia that we can see coming at us through the mist.” Bob Carr, Former Foreign Minister and Former Premier of NSW.
We look at the projected rise of Australia’s megacities – where some will double their current size – and ask who is planning for this?
“We’ve got huge changes coming…we’re looking at things like infrastructure needs, education needs, health needs. These are huge issues that Australia is facing as our population grows.” Innes Willox, Chief Exec, Australian Industry Group
We investigate how we got to this point and interrogate why Australia has no national population policy.
“We’ve done an abysmal job. You know, there has been really no serious integrated debate around all the key factors that population growth brings to our economy and our national way of life.” Innes Willox
Some are now saying we should pull down the shutters and dramatically reduce the number of migrants arriving in Australia or risk our envied way of life.
“I see disaster for the way of life that we loved in Australia.” Dick Smith
Others point out that we’re facing a tsunami of older Australians, who will not have people to care for them.
“The oldest baby boomer is about 68, 69. We’re going to need more than 24,000 (aged care workers) every five years. We’re going to need 50,000. It’s not the sort of job that can be digitally disrupted.” Bernard Salt, The Demographics Group
Australians will need to start asking: what sort of place do we want to live in? What are we determined to hang onto and what are we prepared to give up?
The debate begins with Four Corners this Monday.
You’ll find online features and shareable videos on the Four Corners Facebook page and ABC News Online.
And Q&A will keep the conversation going in a special “Big Australia” edition following Four Corners.
Monday 12th March at 8.30pm on ABC.
2 Responses
The debate doesn’t begin just because the ABC decides to stop calling all anti-immigration campaigners racists and give them some air time. Dick Smith has been campaigning on this for 20 years. Presumably they will forget as well that the ABC has backed Carrs anti-development agenda, including the zoning and heritage restrictions on the suburbs around the Sydney CBD that the RBA today pointed out were a major contributor to housing unaffordability and gridlock in the city. It now going to take both reductions in immigration and better planning and investments in infrastructure to fix the problems, and not without significant costs. State Government have proven woeful at this, the Federal Government worse and with NIMBYism and Critical Theory entrenched on the internet is now likely to impossible to fix.
The ABC has been meekly supporting the ‘big Australia’ policy without any serious discussion for ages. The politicians are scared stiff of the subject for some reason and refuse to discuss it despite growing concern in the wider community. However, let’s hope that things are about to change on this important issue.