The suggestion by senior CSIRO scientist Doug Cocks last week that Australia may have enough or too many people deserves serious attention. Dr Cocks made his assertion in a book, People Policy: Australia’s Population Choices. He was driven to write the book after helping the 1994 inquiry by the Long Term Strategies Committee of the House of Representatives. That committee avoided making any recommendations about population and immigration policy.
Dr Cocks rightly points out that politicians from both sides make policies in isolation. In particular, immigration policy is not made with the best long-term interests of the nation as a whole but a s a short-term balancing act between the squeals of the ethnic lobby on one side and the environment lobby on the other. Dr Cocks rightly points out that that is no way to make worthwhile policy.
Dr Cocks says that the higher population caused by high immigration is causing more pollution, greater congestion and generally a lower quality of life. He may or may not be right. In any event, he is certainly right to point out that it is folly to make a immigration policy in isolation from housing, cities, transport, social welfare, agriculture and other policy. Australian policy makers should make a more intelligent long-term assessment of the economic, ecological and social impact of immigration rather than setting annual immigration targets according to the level of immediate background noise.