![]() Infrastructure Australia has waded into the explosive political debate over immigration, as Tony Abbott again defended his call to slash the intake in an opinion piece in the Australian. Infrastructure Australia warned in a new report that it was neither feasible nor desirable for the country to turn its back on the opportunities presented by population growth. In a report released on Friday, the independent statutory body lays out different options for how cities plan for, encourage and manage this growth. But it is warning failing to prepare for population growth will see cities including Sydney and Melbourne suffer from congestion and a lack of access to jobs, schools, parks and hospitals. Abbott this week called for Australia’s permanent migration intake to be slashed by 80,000 places a year to 110,000, a cut he did not make during his prime ministership. He blamed migrants for headaches including traffic jams, house prices and job vacancies. Senior Coalition colleagues, including past and present immigration ministers, the acting prime minister and the minister for trade, all criticised Abbott’s comments. But their public rebukes only encouraged the former PM to dig in deeper, insisting he never accepted Treasury “orthodoxy” that immigration was good for growth. In an opinion piece for the Australian on Friday, Abbott suggests critics of his calls for cuts to immigration have not read his speech. “One thing I am not going to cop is gratuitous criticism from ministers who are only in government because I led them there,” he writes. “It is the prime minister’s right to choose his ministerial team and, given some of the policies of this government, I’m happy to serve on the backbench.” Abbott writes that the government’s failure to differentiate its policies from Labor will see the Liberal party lose votes. “You’d think a government that’s lost the past 27 Newspolls might be curious about how it could lift its game,” Abbott wrote. “But no, ministers have gone out of their way to attack a colleague who knows more about winning elections than anyone in the parliament.” Australia’s population is expected to grow by 11.8 million people by 2046, which is equivalent to adding a new city roughly the size of Canberra each year for the next 30 years. Three-quarters of this growth is expected to occur in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. “A growing population is an exciting opportunity to increase our economic prosperity and livability. The potential benefits are immense,” Infrastructure Australia said in its report. Australia faces a complex set of choices about the future of cities, each requiring trade-offs and compromise. “But inaction is not an option, nor is business as usual,” the report warns. “If we fail to effectively anticipate and respond to growth, the likely results will be declining economic productivity, increasing environmental pressures and a marked reduction in each city’s quality of life.” The agency called on the federal government to establish consistent frameworks to drive infrastructure development, underpinned by better planning. Read More: theguardian
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |