mono

I referred to this on another thread and I think people were a little dismissive of it - somewhat predictably.

Worth a bit of a think/talk about, I'd have said.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news...0124-msmf.html

Neil52

I say go for it, as long as they can get the water situation sorted out which they could if they really wanted as you can use treated seawater without problems....Loads of wasted coastal land that could be home to millions....

ozzieeagle

.
Double post

ozzieeagle

This is actually my favorite topic re Australia. I have a lot of respect for Dick Smith, carries a lot of credibility in my book. So his views have taken me aback slightly.

However I personally believe that all Australia lacks is infrastructure. Imagine if people had taken these environmental views at the dawn of time.... There would be no Cities, no Electricity, no Mining, no progress whatsoever. If Australia can fix it's water problems, which are the main issue, via pipelines from Tasmania and the North.... however expensive that maybe, then surely thats just progress.... albeit with some Environmental effect.... surely building anything has an Environmental impact ?.

I'll repeat what I've always said on this subject, there is enough water here, it's just not in the right place. In fact it's highly likely that plenty of arable land could be created with a lot of money spent on water infrastructure.

I've havent even touched on the political implications of maintaining a mainly Anglo Culture, at the bottom end of expanding and increasing powerful Asia. With a resource rich topography just waiting to be owned. I think the political implications are even more dangerous if maintained at present levels and we need Asian migrants to balance up the social makeup of Australia to maintain longterm stability in our region.

Wol

Sydney seems to be mainly Chinese anyway.

Vash the Stampede

Not quite.

Wol

That refers to "born overseas", not racial types. Sydney is only an hour north of me but it always hits me in the face as soon as I step into a Sydney street what a large proportion of the people are Chinese extraction.

mono

But we all know stats are not to be believed, don't we?

At least, they are never reliable when they say anything negative about Australia.

loz

At least, they are never reliable when they say anything negative about Australia.[/QUOTE]

quoll

Quite right. We drove up to Sydney on Australia Day and my DH (who hasnt been up there in a good many years) made a comment after we had been driving along the M4 for a good long while about how he hadnt seen a "white" face in any of the cars we passed. We were heading for Ikea (saddos, I know) and it would seem that far and away the large majority of customers were Asian/Indian/Middle Eastern and many with very Australian accents. Actually, that probably says more about the good taste of the Europeans than anything else

ABCDiamond

'Sydney City' and 'Sydney' are different...

Sydney City population 21,399
15% Australian Born
7% China
7% Indonesia
4% Thailand
2% Hong Kong
2% United Kingdom
(ABS Data)

Sydney population 4,095,244
will be near enough the figures quoted by Vash

Statistics must be looked at carefully to ensure we know what we are actually looking at.

ABCDiamond

Why would a larger number of Chinese be a negative in your mind ?

Lord_Farquar

Sydney gets twice the rainfall of London and has less than half the population. Something to ponder the next time people whinge about the lack of water.

ozzieeagle

Hmmm Hong Kong and China are now the same place.... So thats 9 pct Chinese in reality.

BTW Does anyone here think that Australia should really be putting as much money as it possibly can afford into sorting out a proper water infrastructure program along the East coast and into Adelaide at almost any enviornmental cost. I'm talking Dams and Pipelines basically. I understand that extra dams and Pipelines from Tasmania can fix Melbourne and Adelaide's problems, whereas I think Sydney's and Outback NSW may have to come from the North....

Here's Melbournes and Adelaides fix... A gravity fed Pipeline from a newly purpose built dam high on the North West Coast of Tasmania

http://petermartin.blogspot.com/2008...-tasmania.html



I certainly do.

Perth and WA have more or less sorted out their own problems.

slapphead_otool

The arguments seem to be:

1. We need more young people to look after our aging population.

But of course, if you import more young people, they too will eventually go old and grey, resulting in an even larger problem. You either look after 5-6 million old people today, or you look after 10- 15 million old people in 2060. Take your pick.


2. We need more young people to boost the economy.
But of course, you need the infrastructure to accommodate the increase in population, and that costs money. Lots of money. Infrastructure takes 2-3 generations to pay for itself, in the meantime the state has to service the debt for new hospitals, train systems, new roads, water desalination and reservoirs, highways etc.

Australia has enjoyed the good life by not investing in infrastructure. We make a big thing out of the Harbour Bridge and the Snowy Mountains, and ignore the single lane highways between capitals, the useless inter-capital train systems, the aging buses and trains. We could just manage with a small population, but we won’t with mass migration.

Maybe higher taxes for the first ten years for migrants to pay for the investment needed to support them.