fatandfast said:
This is to any Aussie's . In the US we are getting Aussie news that consists of: because of the growing economy w an emphasis on mining you are going to have a big labor shortage. It's being painted that w India and China needing so much material that mining/oil/gas will create huge cash reserves that will last for@ 20 years or more as long as those 2 important buyers keep ordering boat loads of alum and copper. Are regular Aussie's anti immigration? Is the Big Australia immigration policy dead? I have seen pro immigration attitudes implode in 3 or 4 places I have lived. Just curious about the acceptance of outsiders as "true" citizens.. Anybody familiar w US culture can see people marching in parades proud to be..Irish,Italian,German and then right after the parade is over they put on their mixed message tea bag t-shirt and go out and protest against Mexicans.
Big Australia has been dead for at least 40 years I think (or maybe even since Stanley Bruce). The previous Prime Minister thought it was a good idea, but he got shafted by his own party. There is definitely a growing sense amongst the public that our cities can't cope with more people. Poor planning and infrastructure combined with solid population growth is hurting the cities. Australia is unique in that ~90% of the population is in ~15% of the land (no idea what the numbers are but it's something like that), the coastal plains around the capital cities with a few significant regional centers.
So any "Big Australia" policy is much more than immigration and labour. Where I live there's just no way we can continue with population growth and the ridiculous sprawl (basically just residential suburbia for 100km x 30km ) in terms of building a sustainable city and keeping living costs low/amenities high.
Current and future immigration policy is basically a controlled quota of "skilled migrants" which basically means stealing well qualified doctors, engineers etc rather than bringing masses in to meet labour demands. Immigration debate here this decade has always been dominated by the pseudo-issue of illegal immigrants or those seeking asylum. As a result there are negative connotations whenever immigration is mentioned.
Australia is in the unique position for an OECD country because of our natural resource wealth and strong exports. At the moment though there is a severe lack of foresight in terms of being able to ride the mining boom for a decade or three whilst at the same time carefully plotting the inevitable transition to a point where services rule alone without Mining and Agriculture.
Australians are definitely xenophobic as a collective, I admit to having a bit of xenophobia lingering in my subconscious. I would say I'm pro-immigration, but I'm also pro-gressive, I don't think you can have one without the other.
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