Gillard suggests she would favour skilled immigration

Natasha Chaku
Melbourne, Jun 27 (PTI) Australia's new Prime Minister
Julia Gillard on Sunday vetoed her predecessor Kevin Rudd's
idea of a 'big Australia,' indicating a slowdown in
immigration to the nation where Indians constitute one of the
largest chunk of immigrants.
She said Australia with a population of 22 million
should not "hurtle down" towards a big population but opt for
skilled migration.
Gillard, the country's first woman prime minister who
ousted Rudd, took a different stand on one of his chief policy
issues and said she supports a population that the nation's
environment, infrastructure and services can sustain.
The nation should not "hurtle down the track towards a
big population," she said according to an ABC report.
"I don't support the idea of a big Australia with
arbitrary targets of, say, a 40 million-strong Australia or a
36 million-strong Australia. We need to stop, take a breath
and develop policies for a sustainable Australia," she said.
According to Treasury's Intergenerational Report
earlier this year Australian population was projected to rise
from about 22 million to 35.9 million in 2050 if the current
trends in overseas migration and fertility continued, with
immigration by far the biggest contributor.
Gillard said: "If you spoke to the people of Western
Sydney, for example, about a big Australia... they would laugh
at you and ask you a very simple question: where will these 40
million people go?"
However, Gillard said it does not mean putting a stop
on immigration all together. "I don't want business to be held
back because they couldn't find the right workers... That's
why skilled migration is so important.
"But also I don't want areas of Australia with 25 per
cent youth unemployment because there are no jobs," she said.
Melbourne was predicted to hit a figure of 7 million
people, and Sydney would grow to more than 7.5 million by
2050. The report prompted the country to rethink its migration
policy over whether big cities, now straining under inadequate
infrastructure, could cope with the growth.
Former Prime Minister Rudd, who was an advocate of a
"big Australia" had appointed Tony Burke as Population
Minister to develop a strategy.
Gillard, who immigrated as a child from Wales in 1966
when Australia's population was 11.5 million, said Burke's job
description would now change to "send a very clear message
about this new direction". He would now be known as the
Minister for Sustainable Population.
Though Gillard stressed that her belief that
population growth should be limited was "not about bringing
down the shutters in immigration," any move to lower current
rates would involve taking in significantly fewer immigrants.
Last year, overseas migration added almost 300,000
people majorly from the developing countries like Philippines,
Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Vietnam. PTI NC
RBT


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