Australia hit the 23mill population mark last night.

[i-need-a-martini]

Here is a great video showing who we are (skip the article as it is boring):

http://www.smh.com.au/national/record-births-but-wave-of-migrants-push-nation-past-23m-20130422-2iao...

[catsnknots]

This is a great topic..... 

Do we really want a big Australia or do we want to keep it at a smaller level.

If we keep growing we are going to have to invest big dollars into infrastructure like roads, schools, hospitals, sewage plants, dams... more housing estates... Do we have enough jobs for all these new people? 

It could be good for local businesses that need more people to sell too but is it a viable option? 

[i-need-a-martini]

I think our biggest problem cat is that we don't encourage enough people to live away from the cities.

We've got plenty of room and we need people to prosper. So a large(r) it is viable.

What isn't viable is that the majority of those people are living in cities. And the population growth in cities is greater than the rush to create infrastructure.

[*crikey*mate*]

I think a larger population will be beneficial to us.

Jobs are now a global commodity, so that's not really a big concern, however, in theory extra people will create more jobs (someone's got to build the extra houses and infrastructure etc) and extra people working will generate a larger base from which to draw funds for not only the infrastructure required to support them, but also the funds needed to support those unable to work.

I also believe that a larger population will give us more of an economic presence on the world stage and thus greater buying power (you know the deal, buy in bulk etc) which can only aide or economy.

In saying that, I do have my doubts as to whether the current managerial system of things like our health and education sectors will cope with an increase in population as it seems they can';t adequately meet the current demands placed on these systems.

Clearly we can't predict what path that a new born will take, but I'm pretty sure that migrants are screened to determine at what level they are able to contribute to our society.

[catsnknots]

I think our biggest problem cat is that we don't encourage enough people to live away from the cities.

We've got plenty of room and we need people to prosper. So a large(r) it is viable.

What isn't viable is that the majority of those people are living in cities. And the population growth in cities is greater than the rush to create infrastructure.

haha.. there is a bit of room away from the cities... but to make more room we need huge investments in pipes, cables, roads, schools, and hospitals just to mention a few things... 

Do you want to pay more taxes and rates to cover those costs.. us people in rural areas don't  want too. We don't have enough jobs at high enough wages to pay any more... many people struggle to pay what they do now. In fact we don't  even have enough jobs to give us all work right now.. with unemployment rates at close to 10% or over. 

You can't say it will make jobs... councils can't afford to employ more people... 

I am not saying this to kill the idea.. I don't know if we can do it... and we need to decide before it gets out of control... 

[i-need-a-martini]

Cat I'd be happy to pay extra taxes if it meant regional and country areas got better infrastructure. I think you would be happy to pay it to for your own and your families benefit.

But that's not what I meant.

The problem with the majority of our infrastructure in this country is that it overwhelmingly managed/paid for by the state governments and they have a different agenda to federal governments. The states have allowed private companies to take over a significant proportion of new infrastructure built and they are city focused because that's how they get their dollar return on investment.

The infrastructure that is built outside of cities is profit driven. It's ridiculous that we can have a road built by a private company to housing estates built by private companies with telecommunications built by private companies but there aren't schools, hospitals etc being built at the same time. 

[ashjoma]

Yeh, sure  - with all the illegals here, on the quiet,  it hit that some time ago

[i-need-a-martini]

Oh yeah, we are way over populated thanks to the 'illegals' huh? And the government has been secretly keeping our 'real' population figure quiet in case we all realise we are being over run by nonAustralians. We really have 3 billion people here and 1.9 billion are refugees that arrived on a boat. The other.1 of a billion are the people smugglers that got them here and decided they liked it so much they would stay.

* rolls eyes *

[ashjoma]

I don't wish to hijack this thread, martini

but

how many million illegals would you like ??

Back to original thread now - no more to say

[donnashuggy]

Martini, did you read this today?:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/our-23millionth-citizen-has-just-won-lifes-lottery-20130422-2i96s.htm...

Fantastic read