The great Australian population debate | 60 Minutes Australia

Australians are competitive and love to win no secret there but there's one contest where winning might mean losing it's the population race currently our country is growing at more than twice the rate of America the United Kingdom and would you believe China most politicians and economists say big is not only beautiful but essential that a booming population fueled by immigration will guarantee our future prosperity but it's an argument that's hard to cop for many everyday Aussies crushed by endless development congestion and overcrowding [Music] directly beneath the landmark to the first church ever built in Australia massive new cathedrals are being carved out of the sandstone 30 metres below [Music] the twin 15 kilometer tunnels will run deep under the sea floor of Sydney Harbor creating a much needed second rail crossing [Music] the existing network barely coats with all the passenger demand so these tunnels fit into the new congestion busting mantra of the Morrison government who this week announced cuts to immigration to ease the squeeze on our biggest cities we've stuffed them look as someone who's sitting in a traffic jam I just think this is ridiculous and that politician sigh all we just need more infrastructure crap do you need a lot of people to have a good City yes in my opinion the really great cities of the world have to have at least 6 7 8 million people so the critical mass for Sydney you think is about double what it is now it would not be terrible as Sydney was double five million ten million people living in Sydney alone don't laugh it may happen sooner than you think and the same goes for Melbourne our surging population has been fueled by record immigration levels which has meant Australia is growing by 400,000 people a year if you walk around one of our big cities and feel like it's more crowded than ever before well you'd be right these streets are filling up at a rate that far exceeds official estimates just twenty years ago the number crunchers the Australian Bureau of Statistics predicted there'd be 25 million people in Australia by 2050 one well we hit that target last year thirty three years ahead of schedule the problem is where does it all stop now you really notice that yes it's extraordinary really I mean the rate of not who goes up it's I can't believe it Ben and Tori Lachman are battling to get ahead Ben works at Sydney University as a gardener and the best thing about the early starts is he beats the crowds [Music] meanwhile back in their small rental cottage Tory gets five-year-old ivy and little Ethan ready for daycare and school before she starts her working day their goal is their own home for both of you the Great Australian Dream is still really your dream we'd love to yes yeah 100% that's the endgame as I'd like to call it but do you think with this population growth we have at the moment it's attainable no definitely not no way that's right well that's a bit depressing is mylène any way to give an example of how we've gone past the sweet point I when I bought my house Pippin and myself we bought a house it cost $32,000 instantly in 1970 and I think it was about four times the annual salary now it's over double or even more than that young couples can't afford a house with a block of land where the kids can play in a cubby house that's wrong people are taking after two hours to get to work and that's two hours they threw out back just wasting so much family time now wonder we're having so many social problems for dick Smith the only way to beat Sidney's crippling traffic congestion is in the air but the endless development he sees below depresses the hell out of you but that's just the start what I'm going to show you then these houses will be knocked down and they'll go high-rise the best cities in the world only have a few million often quote Geneva I think it has a population of 1 million but it's over a thousand years old now why don't they have 5 million like Sydney going for 10 million because that bloody sensible they have decided no we don't want huge high-rise jammed roads complete lack of quality of life we want to think of the people who live here but if Dick Smith represents one side of the population debate developer and planning consultant dr. Shane gajja represents the other you know something that really bothers me when I was a child we used to talk about the whinging palms right now maybe this shouldn't make TV but the whinging palms winds de bout everything you know what I think the problem is we've become the whinging palms everything is a huge problem everything's an issue we've got one of the luckiest countries in the world one of the nicest cities by any measure and we still can't say thank you this is a great place and it can be a greater place with more people and you know what you can fund double the infrastructure if you had more people was the best of times it was the worst of times and I feel it's a bit like that today that we've got the best world we've ever had but yet it's the most complex for Shane big really is beautiful and the rest of us have to wake up to the modern reality the growth is healthy because the alternative to growth is no growth and I think no growth is extremely problematic I think the idea of a growing population and a growing Australia and a growing economy is good for everyone we're told that endless economic growth is the solution to all our problems and growth has been an article of faith for politicians of all persuasion crying 403 which prompted dick Berggren to make this add the new Morrison government's annual cap on permanent immigration of 160,000 doesn't go far enough according to dick are we that stupid if we bought our immigration down to 70,000 a year which is the long-term average our population would level off at about 30 million and that's what we should be doing let's look at the reverse the reverse is have no immigration tomorrow say what will happen is we'll have stagnation in growth will have a shrinking of the tax receipts for the next three or four years we will not be able to fund existing services will either have to borrow or tax more both of which are unpalatable electorally I'm not sure that's the right way to go I think that's the wrong way to go and I'll give you another example everyone talks about the very fast train between Sydney and Melbourne magnificent idea should happen tomorrow can't happen it's the twenty billion dollar exercise with only four and five million people to support the business case now if you had ten million and eight million say I'm just conjecturing you would have the very fast train tomorrow they microwave in a in a place called Pakenham which is 55 kilometers out from Melbourne and it was a country town of 2,000 people when I was growing up Allen touch is the son of British migrants and he's now the Federal Minister for population and urban infrastructure if their dogs born in what was called the Pakenham bush nursing hospital and now it's absolutely part of the suburbs of Melbourne so he is the politician at the epicenter of Australia's population debate how big do you want to see Australia I think Australia can grow and but it's it is the question about how we manage that growth the central question and well it depends on what period of time you're looking Liam as well 2051 give me that figure so it again depends on it depends on how well we can manage this growth if it give me a right because the OBS said 25 million by 2030 we hit that last year so give me a figure and again the ABS figures was based on looking at the past growth rate and projecting forward based on that growth rate oh my god so depending on what our settings are will determine what ultimately our population will be in 2050 undoubtedly will be bigger coming up it's just like my dream come true backyard bliss what are the Australians like the work with their necks is bad making immigration work away from the rat race though they almost saved the town they did save the town that's next on 60 minutes [Music] a few years ago pyramid Hill in northern Victoria was like so many country towns a fading Mirage today there's no debate about population and immigration out here after an influx of Filipino workers and their families literally saved the town's bacon thank you it's definitely built the Tanner like is this something like 105 or whatever like Filipino is the impairment hill near they've there's I know the 13 homes that have been bought by Filipinos Wow there's four new ones been just been built in the last 18 months or so so there's not too many country towns where that's happening Gary good Tom Smith that his sons run the Kia Ora piggery which is now a booming business but 11 years ago its Achilles heel was securing dedicated workers nobody wants to live in that country seriously hey seriously I don't want to leave you so what did you do did you go to the Philippines your heart yeah so II what I did is I put a an ad in the Manila Times to Sunday Manila Times what sort of response did you get we're gonna be at 40 or something like that no started rolling in no time flat [Music] Richard Fernandes was one of the first Filipinos here and now after 10 years proudly calls Australia home but how do you look back on it now good decision yeah absolutely no regret at all you can tell me really quietly but what are the Australians like to work with they're not too bad but yeah yeah they're oh yeah hard-working yeah different animal but the same good news story just down the road here a 1500 strong dairy herd is rounded up for milking twice a day by six full-time Filipino staff [Music] Jade and Belinda climb Oh had found it impossible to get reliable ozzie workers so in desperation they - turned to the Philippines Herbert apostille was their first Filipino employee when Herbert got here and started work I can see you were smiling I mean there must have been an experience but you knew straight away that he was he was going to be good oh yeah yeah yeah he's a very quiet guy but yeah he he just blended him so nicely and and then each Filipino that has come since Herbert yeah has been brilliant every one of them has been a winner yep yep yeah Herbert got here and he was looking at off over his dick at all the farm and he was just shaking his head he couldn't believe he'd made it to where he wanted to go so yeah I remember looking at him for the whole this is this is a moment in time here I started as I said that it's just like my dream come true I built my own house buy my own car making my baby here in Australia so new family yeah didn't come to [Music] Herbert's five-year-old daughter severe started at some Patrick's School in pyramid Hill this year more than half the children attending the school have Filipino parents how much of a difference have they made to the community here huge huge pyramid Hill in itself would would not be anywhere near what it is now the school had minimal numbers the store wouldn't probably still be open so we almost saved the town that you decide yeah they did save the town yeah yeah and you're a local boy say we'd be proud of that yes yes pyramid Hill's story illustrates how immigration can be a win-win for all but it can depend on where you live as always there's a divide between the city and the bush back in crowded Sydney even immigrant taxi drivers like Indian Vikas Gupta say enough is enough we're full what do you think the problem is I think problem is migration so everybody coming from our says they want to sit in all the big cities like Sydney and Melbourne that's where the most of the work it's people who are no choice I think when they come from overseas but Sydney is not designed for that many people you know [Music] the migration rate is at the lowest level in a decade and it's trending downwards but the key thing with this is managing the growth and that's what our population policy is aimed at doing now nearly all the growth three-quarters of it is in to Melbourne Sydney and southeast Queensland when there's other parts in the country who actually want more people there's rip there's many parts of regional Australia that can't get a warm body to do the work today it's little wonder federal population Minister Allen touch points to pyramid Hill as an example of what could happen across the country if immigrants are channeled out to the regions what we do want to see is a greater proportion of new people coming into the country to go to some of the smaller cities or the regional areas where the jobs are available it would be impossible to put in practice because this is what will happen is that the people might come here and go to the country town initially but this is a free country we can't hold people in locations forever and so after a while they'll come to the city as far as planning consultant dr. Shane gajja is concerned the answer is simply making our cities taller not wider so build it and they can come in thicken fast so I'll give you an example if you walk into a coffee shop and there's nobody there you'll generally walk out and that's because we somehow need other people to make our lives special and so let's not be scared don't think of migrants Leanne as a drain think of migrants as a resource people are our greatest resource you seriously think if we have higher density then everyone in Sydney and Melbourne will have a better quality of life let me give you the converse because it's easier to show you if we put people out 50 kilometres from the city which we're doing at the moment in low density housing it's almost impossible to get the public transport to work to them so when you hear a planner say high density is the answer you're disgusting do you know what most of them the interesting thing is most of them live on a block of land with gardens and with a place for the kids to play cricket in the backyard so anyone who could afford it would love to have a bit of space around them we're supposed to be a wealthy country why should we go backwards Shane where do you live I live in the eastern suburbs in a house in a house with a block with a block not high-density but I've lived in high-density up until that point which brings us back to Ben and Tory Lachlan working themselves to exhaustion to save for a nest egg that's becoming more elusive by the day as Sydney Australia keeps growing eight men and ten million people what do you think of that please know it's hard enough already that's right without adding extra pressure on top of it all and then it's a third of them that's a fear of the people coming in to live you don't want a global city as they put it we were to live in a riot you must look at the numbers all the time you've seen yes you're the minister sure so when are we gonna hit 30 minute we outline a 10-year for example infrastructure pipeline right so where are we within ten years but in partly going through a process 30 minutes to work this out 35 bit but for Eamon Liam stop me we're not getting too high hello I'm Liam Bartlett thanks for watching so keep up with the latest from 60 minutes Australia make sure you subscribe to our Channel you can also download the 9 now app for full episodes and other exclusive 60 minutes content

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 784,144

Rating: 4.22824 out of 5

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Allison Langdon, Tom Steinfort, Ellen Fanning, Peter Overton, Ray Martin, Jana Wendt, Jeff McMullen, Jennifer Byrne, Mike Munro, Richard Carleton, Tracey Curro, Peter Harvey, George Negus, Ian Leslie, Gerald Stone, Sarah Abo, population, immigration, congestion, people, debate, politics

Id: niQMmARwHyo

Length: 19min 27sec (1167 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 25 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/midflinx]

Compared to most countries, Australia probably has more control over its population growth. But what should it set the population growth rate to when many Australians struggling to achieve the physical and financial quality of life of older generations, think the government is doing a poor job of managing recent growth?