Fed govt to draw up population strategy

April 4, 2010 by admin

The federal government will respond to concerns Australia is marching towards an unsustainable population by drawing up a strategy that first considers the benefits of growth. Tony Burke will be appointed as Australia's first population minister and will draw up a strategy on how to support the growing population and its effect on infrastructure and services, housing, congestion, the environment, agriculture and water. [...] Opposition Leader Tony Abbott meanwhile used the appointment to attack the government's approach to the asylum seeker problem. "You can't have a population policy without also having a border protection policy," he told reporters in Sydney. "If you can't control your borders, you can't sustain your population." read more