Australia’s mass immigration-driven population growth is overwhelming infrastructure and putting the country on a “disastrous trajectory” towards an ecological crisis, a lobby group has warned.
Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) on Friday responded to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing 617,900 immigrants arrived in the country in the year to September 2024, and said that although the growth rate fell year-on-year it was still well above the OECD average.
The SPA referenced a report from the Australian National University on the environment that found “new developments to accommodate Australia’s rapidly growing population pose a particular threat to local ecosystems and species, especially along the east coast”, and concluded that “Big Australia equals eco crisis”.
SPA national president Peter Strachan said that additions to Australia’s public infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and utility services, could not keep up with hundreds of thousands of people being added every year.
“Such rapid pace of population expansion damages the natural environment and creates further hurdles for reduced greenhouse gas emissions,” Mr Strachan said.
“Assuming an average occupancy of 2.5 people per household, an extra 193,600 dwellings are required to accommodate this population growth, never mind the current tent-city homeless. That’s a lot more than the 158,690 new homes commenced in Australia last year.
“Net overseas migration (immigration minus emigration) for the period was 379,800, a decrease from 548,800 people in the previous year. This pace of population growth acts to raise accommodation costs, increases costs of living, damages Australia’s environment, and is way beyond the economy’s ability to supply the services that our modern society deserves.
“We need to lower net immigration to its long-term average of 70,000 pa if Australia is to have any chance of stabilising its population below 30 million. Even though the total fertility rate is 1.5 and has been below 2 for two generations, natural increase (births minus deaths), while falling slowly, is still over 100,000 annually.
“This is largely due to the impact of immigration, which accounted for 78.5 percent of population growth in the latest statistics.”
Mr Strachan called on political candidates and parties to formulate population policies ahead of the May federal election that would limit population growth to relieve pressure on infrastructure, prevent habitat destruction, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
An SPA report published in November last year found that mass immigration was putting Australia’s water security at risk, due to water demand outstripping improvements in the efficiency of household water use, making cities more vulnerable to extended droughts.
The report found that future population growth will require adding up to 1,450 gigalitres to annual water supply in capital cities in coming decades – the equivalent of the total volume currently supplied each year to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth combined.
The report came just weeks after Sydney Water announced water prices would increase by 50% over the next five years in response to population growth.
Header image: A new build suburb where streets are named after Pakistani cities in Riverstone, Sydney (Noticer News).
