SYDNEY LETTER:The opposition Liberals say they will slash numbers of immigrants to Australia if they win this year's federal election
THE POPULATION of Australia increases by one person every 70 seconds. Last night it stood at 22,302,458.
Prime minister Kevin Rudd says he favours a “big Australia”, and has just appointed Australia’s first minister for population.
As things stand, the government expects the population to reach 36 million by 2050. But opposition leader Tony Abbott has criticised the projected population increase.
He has no problem with babies being born in Australia every one minute and 46 seconds, but has major issues with the net gain of one immigrant in the exact same time.
Abbott has been lambasted for his comments by the ruling Labor Party, business organisations and even some within his own Liberal Party. But for a country of immigrants, Australians have an odd fear of immigration, and Abbott is gaining some traction.
A national survey released this week showed that, while 72 per cent supported a rise in Australia’s population, 69 per cent want it limited to 30 million or fewer.
With a federal election due before the end of the year, it is no surprise that Abbott is making his views on immigration known.
In the lead-up to the 2001 election, the then Liberal government under prime minister John Howard was trailing Labor in the polls. But this all changed when the Tampa, a Norwegian freighter carrying 438 refugees it had rescued in international waters, was refused permission to enter Australian waters.
Howard famously said: “We will decide who comes to this country, and the circumstances in which they come.”
The fear of boat people and immigration was quelled, and the Liberals were returned with an increased majority, though soon afterwards Australia was taking in more immigrants than ever before to work in the booming economy. Howard was always adept at telling the people what they wanted to hear, and then quietly doing the opposite.
Abbott channelled his political mentor last week when he said: “The problem is that under Mr Rudd we do not decide who comes to our country and the circumstances under which they come . . . It’s very hard to have a population policy if you haven’t got a border protection policy.”
The opposition immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, said that if the Liberals won the election they would slash immigrant numbers – a change that could affect tens of thousands of Irish people.
A senior Liberal told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper that Abbott had made a unilateral policy decision on the issue. “It never went through shadow cabinet, and it never went through the party room. There’s a lot of really pissed-off people; it’s an absolutely ridiculous policy, and now we’re all rusted on to supporting it.”
Morrison later tried to backtrack by saying: “If there is an interpretation out there that this is a wholesale policy, it’s not a wholesale policy.”
According to Labor’s new population minister, Tony Burke, the Liberals can’t get their story straight. “How can you have a population policy when you can’t even govern a population of 20 in your own shadow cabinet?” he said.
“They have flipped and flopped over whether they even have a population policy.”
Business organisations are also unhappy with the direction the Liberals are taking. Heather Ridout of the Australian Industry Group told ABC television that population growth was not out of control.
“If we are going to make that choice to restrict migrants, over the years we are going to have to pay higher taxes to support an ageing population,” she said.
Chris James of the Victorian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce said the economy would suffer if immigration was cut. “What happens when you don’t have strong population growth is a situation like Japan where stagnation is the order of the day,” he said.
The managing director of the Australian Tourism Export Council, Matthew Hingerty, said he complained “very robustly” to a senior Liberal about the party’s comments on immigration. He specifically mentioned the two classes of visa most often used by Irish people migrating to Australia. “The service economy would grind to a standstill without backpackers and ‘457s’,” he said.
In the year to the end of June 2009, a total of 2,501 Irish people got residence visas for Australia, up from 1,989 in the previous 12 months. Many of these were 457 visas, issued for specific skills in demand such as information technology and engineering.
The increase in one-year backpacker visas was even more dramatic. The number issued to Irish people aged 18 to 30 rose by one-third, to 22,788 in the year to June 30th last, from 17,120 the previous year.
Many Irish people will be watching the outcome of Australia’s election later this year very closely.
