Planning the key to handling population growth: Rudd

26 Mar 2010, 11:00 am   -   Source: AAP
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Australia's population ticked over 22 million in September last year but Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is resisting calls to wind back overseas migration.

Australia's population ticked over 22 million in September last year but Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is resisting calls to wind back overseas migration.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday released an update on the nation's population, which reached 22,066,000 on September 30, 2009.

This was an increase of 451,900 people during the year, keeping the growth rate high at 2.1 per cent. The majority of the growth, 66 per cent, was due to overseas migration, with the remainder, 34 per cent, due to natural increase, or the excess of births over deaths.

Pressure is building on Mr Rudd, who believes in the benefits of a "big Australia", to spell out how the nation can sustain an expected 35.9 million people by 2050.

The Australian Conservation Foundation this week nominated population growth to be listed in federal environmental laws as a threat to biodiversity, a move that would push the government into developing a strategy.

Former NSW Labor premier Bob Carr on Wednesday called for Australia's immigration intake to be slashed by half, while Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who has Australia's fastest growing region in the state's south-east, urged a national approach.

But Mr Rudd on Thursday said he saw the problem of population growth in terms of planning for future demand.

"The key challenge for us ... is how do we as a nation prepare for that in terms of infrastructure, in terms of planning for our cities, and all those other practical things which need to be done," Mr Rudd told Fairfax Radio.

The intake of migrants had been scaled back as the economic crisis hit and would continue to be dictated by workforce needs, he said. "For the period ahead we've got to be very mindful of where the pressures still exist in the economy for more skills," Mr Rudd said.

"This is always a year-by-year proposition depending on where we're at, what skills we need, and what we aren't able to generate locally."

Federal Labor MP Kelvin Thomson, who last year floated a plan to cap the population at 26 million, on Thursday said the ABS figures highlighted "a recipe for environmental devastation, rising interest rates, and unaffordable housing".

According to the ABS, in the year ending September 30, 2009, 296,300 babies were born, 0.3 per cent fewer than the previous year.

In the same period, 297,400 people migrated to Australia, 3.1 per cent or 9000 more people than the previous year.

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