THE federal coalition will not commit itself to a population target for Australia until it gets advice from an expanded Productivity Commission, leader Tony Abbott said today.

Unveiling a directions paper on sustainable population growth, Mr Abbott said a coalition government would set target bands for future population growth on the basis of analysis by a re-constituted Productivity and Sustainability Commission.

He accused Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of endorsing a population of 36 million by 2050 without any proper analysis of the impact of immigration.

The next federal election is expected to be held late this year.

“Since the Rudd Government came to office, net overseas migration has averaged over 300,000 a year,” Mr Abbott said.

“By contrast, in the last seven quarters of the Howard Government, net overseas migration was just over 200,000 a year.”

Despite the economic slowdown and the Global Financial Crisis, Mr Rudd had presided over immigration numbers that had increased nearly 50 per cent even on the boom times associated with the former government, Mr Abbott said.

“Without any stated rationale, the Prime Minister has repeatedly endorsed a projected 50 per cent plus population increase to 36 million by 2050 based on a net immigration rate of 180,000 newcomers every year,” he said.

“However, if immigration continued at Mr Rudd’s current rate of 300,000 newcomers every year, Australia’s population should reach 32 million within just 20 years and no less than 42 million by 2050.

“Plainly, Australian governments are not adding to our housing, health, educational and transport infrastructure the equivalent of the city of Canberra every year.

Mr Abbott said the Coalition would seek to restore public confidence in the integrity of Australia’s migration program by ensuring that it was consistent with a sustainable population growth path.

“Decisions about immigration numbers should take into account regularly updated expert advice about projected future population numbers and whether planned infrastructure is likely to be able to cope,” he said.

Within three months of taking office, a Coalition government would re-constitute the Productivity Commission as the Productivity and Sustainability Commission and task it with an annual review of Australia’s infrastructure needs for short, medium and long term projected population numbers, Mr Abbott said.

The key elements of the Coalition policy directions statement, released today, are to:

• Establish a credible and independent source of advice on population growth – through the extension of the role of the Productivity Commission to advise on population sustainability issues. Decisions about the annual migration intake would be informed by this work. A future Coalition government would be guided by Productivity and Sustainability Commission recommendations about whether future infrastructure bottlenecks and environmental pressures were being addressed.
• Listen to Australians – through an independent inquiry to be undertaken by the Commission to establish a new benchmark of community attitudes on where to go from here on future population growth.
• Establish a population growth band target – developed on the basis of Commission advice to inform migration planning that takes into account our capacity to handle growth in areas such as infrastructure delivery, water, energy and food security and environmental sustainability.
• Increase transparency in decision making – by introducing population planning into the Budget Process.
• Support Australian business – by ensuring skills migration remains the primary focus of our migration intake.

Australians are already feeling the growing pains of increased population pressures.  We simply cannot sign up AustraliaAustralia’s population is already growing at one of the highest rates in the developed world, with one person being added to our population every seventy seconds. blind, as Kevin Rudd has done, to a population of 36 million by 2050.

A “big Australia” is not necessarily the same as a stronger and more prosperous Australia. Congestion in our cities, limitations on our energy supply, threats to food and water security, unaffordable housing and eroding standards in our hospitals and schools are all causing Australians to ask questions about how current needs will be met, let alone the needs of Kevin Rudd’s “big Australia”.

Australians can have no confidence that Kevin Rudd will deliver the infrastructure required to support his “big Australia”. A Prime Minister who breaks his election promises, who can’t safely put insulation into roofs, who can’t build school halls and who flip-flops on major policy issues cannot be trusted to get this right.

The Coalition welcomes migrants and supports a non-discriminatory immigration policy based firmly on Australia’s national interest and informed by changing economic conditions. Largely because the former Government boosted economic migration over family reunion migration and virtually stopped the arrival of boat people, public concerns about immigration were halved.

By contrast, the Rudd Government has shattered public confidence in our immigration programme by dramatically boosting immigration numbers and losing control of our borders.