The federal government faces a "difficult choice" between improving infrastructure or slowing migration after new data showed a dramatic drop in support for population growth, says Grattan Institute chief executive officer John Daley.
Mr Daley, who heads up the national policy research group, said the results of an Australian National University survey are due to an increasing concern about housing and congestion in Australia's major cities.
"Either they can ensure that planning policy allows enough housing to be built, ensure that our transport policies are getting enough additional infrastructure in place. That's option one. And that's probably the best option, although it's politically pretty difficult especially around housing," he said.
"Option two is they can look at constraining the number of skilled migrants or they can reduce the number of additional international students that are coming here every year."
The ANUPoll found that just three out of every 10 people believe the country needs more people - a 15 per cent decline in support for population growth since a similar question was asked nine years ago.
But Mr Daley said the results are consistent with other recent studies which showed growing concern about migration, as Melbourne and Sydney struggle to keep up with population growth.
The survey asked 2000 adults were asked late last year whether they thought the country needed more people.
Just three out of every 10 people believe the country needs more migrants, a new survey has found.
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Only 30.4 per cent of respondents believed Australia needed more people, while 69.6 per cent felt the country did not.
Comparatively, in 2010, 45.8 per cent of respondents were in favour of a bigger Australia. The drop is largely attributable to falling support levels among men.
The ANUPoll also asked respondents whether they supported policies that would require new migrants to live in regional towns or cities for a period of time.
Just over 70 per cent said they agree or strongly agreed with such policies, but this was lower for respondents who lived outside capital cities (66.1 per cent).
Despite the support for the policies, Mr Daley said there is a risk they could be used by governments to deflect migration concerns.
"Those kinds of programs, as they survey shows, are extremely popular but the catch is that there is no evidence that they work," he said.
Last year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he intended to cut Australia's permanent migration intake by about 30,000 people, citing public concern about congested cities.
"They are saying: enough, enough, enough," Mr Morrison told the 2018 Bradfield Oration in November.
Scott Morrison has already flagged a cut to Australia's immigration intake.
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The ANU study comes only a month after a 2018 Mapping Social Cohesion survey found four in five Australians still saw the benefits to immigration.
The survey, which canvassed the views of 1,500 randomly chosen Australians, also found 52 per cent of Australians consider the current intake of migrants either ‘about right’ or ‘too low’, challenging some recent media and political narratives about rising concern over immigration and its impact on Australian society.
