Migration Consequences Studied

The Immigration Department has funded a major report by the National Institute of Labour Studies at Flinders University. Its full title is Long-Term Physical Implications of Net Overseas Migration; Australia to 2050. It can be found at www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/research

“Long-Term Implications” find that neither the environment nor our resource security nor our quality of life will benefit from the very rapid growth of population that business lobby groups continue to demand.

It looks systematically at differing levels of New Overseas Migration (NOM) per annum, from zero up to nearly 300,000 a year.  It shows all of them lead to worryingly unsustainable positions, but that higher figures for Net Overseas Migration lead to much worse outcomes. Water supplies to Perth, Melbourne and Sydney will be far worse at higher NOMs.

Writer Mark O’Connor points out that the Report identifies trouble ahead on the oil and food fronts. Nitrate fertilisers, without which we cannot feed even our present population, are made with enormous energy inputs from oil or natural gas, and their price tracks the upward curve of  energy prices.

Mark O’Connor says the world is running out of phosphate fertilisers, much needed by Australian soils. Price has tripled, quality is falling, and supply is erratic. “Long – Term implications” backs up Dick Smith’s concerns about food, saying “The security of production of food in Australia (and imported from overseas) is in question” (pp 129-130)

Melbourne Times Article 1/2/11 'Ban the bag to save the creek'

Minister says ban the bag to save the creek

01 Feb, 2011 04:00 AM

Genevieve Gannon

Melbourne Times Weekly

 

RECENT heavy rains washing rubbish into Merri Creek have prompted Wills MHR Kelvin Thomson to renew his call for plastic bags to be banned from supermarkets.

 

The former Federal Environment Minister has written to current Environment Minister Tony Burke to say the phase-out of plastic bags is necessary to protect waterways and coast lines.

 

‘‘It is absolutely critical that we work together to remove non-compostable plastic bags as soon as possible,’’ he wrote.

 

Melbourne Water spokesman Nicholas McGay said native animals and fish can become entangled in plastic bags, causing injury or death.

 

‘‘Street litter is a threat to the health of Melbourne’s rivers and creeks and the animals that live off them,’’ he said. ‘‘When it rains, any rubbish is washed off streets and carried by the stormwater system into the nearest waterway.’’

 

Mr Thompson’s call was backed by the Friends of Merri Creek.

 

FoMC Member Ray Radford said the issue of who was responsible for rubbish in the water was something that ‘‘fell through the cracks’’ and the only way to significantly reduce litter in the waterways was to ban plastic bags.

 

He said he doesn’t think there was a lot anyone could do once the rubbish reaches the water, he would like to see the issue tackled at its source.

 

‘‘It just comes from the streets, that’s something people might not realise, they might think it goes into a sewage system.’’

 

A Welcome Clarification by the Business Council of Australia

I welcome today’s clarification by the Business Council that they have not recommended that disability support pensions be cut or disability pensioners targeted to fund the flood reconstruction effort or as an alternative to the flood levy. 

Targeting this group with draconian cuts will not address the long-term issues of addressing workplace participation. We should be engaging people with disabilities in employment assistance and rehabilitation where appropriate rather than stigmatising them.

The Business Council is right to point out that people with disabilities who can and want to work should be supported in this endeavour, including through incentive structures.

MELBOURNE CBD HAS TOO MANY LICENSED PREMISES

Tuesday 15 February, 2011

MELBOURNE CBD HAS TOO MANY LICENSED PREMISES

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland is right to say Melbourne CBD has too many licensed premises. As far back as 2007 the Herald Sun reported that the number of licenses issued to serve alcohol beyond 3am has risen by 43% in just 5 years, and that in the CBD there were 146 premises with permits to serve alcohol to 3am or beyond.

The three key features of far too many nightclubs and extended-trading premises are binge drinking, drug taking and violent assaults. The increase in venues operating from midnight right through till daylight represents a recipe for the proliferation of binge drinking, drug taking, and alcohol and drug-related violent crime.  These hours of operation threaten the safety of third parties, such as taxi drivers, and even innocent bystanders.

I am in favour of State Government and Melbourne City Council action to make late-night venues more accountable when problems occur.

This could include licence conditions which result in licenses being forfeited when illegal activity takes place in a venue or if patrons indulge in such activity in or around a licensed venue.  Some of these venues are clearly out of control.  I would like to see some of the extended trading hours licences revoked, and those venues which fail to control their patrons are the obvious places to start.

KELVIN THOMSON MP

Member for Wills

UN Concerned By World Population Growth Trends

The world population growth rate must slow down significantly to avoid reaching unsustainable levels, says a new UN report. The World Demographic Trends Report was prepared by the UN Population Division and summarised by BBC News, Science and Environment:-

"To have a reasonable chance of stabilising world population, fertility must drop to below 'replacement level'.

It must then be maintained at that level for an extended period, says the report.

This replacement level is the fertility level at which a population replaces itself from one generation to the next.

The world population is already poised to reach 7 billion later this year and this figure potentially could double to 14 billion by 2100 if action is not taken.

This is of particular concern for the least developed countries worldwide, which are growing at the fastest rate and are already the most vulnerable to famine".

Business Council Callous Towards Disabled Pensioners

The Business Council of Australia suggests that we consider cutting payments to disabled pensioners. The Business Council suggests that cutting disability pensions might encourage some disabled pensioners to enter the workforce.

But the same Business Council submission would, if taken seriously, make it harder for disabled pensioners to enter the workforce, by bringing in more migrant workers from overseas.

The Business Council wants us to fast track temporary migration through 457 visas, and slash 457 visa processing times. It also says we should target annual net overseas migration of 180,000. Not only would this rapidly increase Australia’s population to 36 million, it makes it much harder for disabled pensioners to get a job.

Instead of suggesting measures to punish some of Australia’s poorest people, the Business Council should give people on disability pensions a real chance of finding a job by abandoning its incessant calls for more migrant workers.

Countries with stable populations outperform countries with growing populations, precisely because they don’t leave the poor and disabled behind.

Rising Teenage Obesity is a Disease Time Bomb

The release today of the National Secondary Students' Diet and Activity survey 2009-10 commissioned by Cancer Council Australia and the National Heart Foundation has revealed a troubling trend of rising teenage obesity. The survey took in 12,000 teenagers across almost 240 schools and found one quarter of young Australians are overweight and obese, 85 per cent don't do enough exercise and three quarters aren't eating enough vegetables. Just 14 per cent of the students were found to meet both the recommended daily intake of vegetables and fruit. The data also showed a clear trend of diet becoming poorer and problems with weight increasing as a young person lived in socially disadvantaged areas.

Health experts are warning that this current generation of teenagers could be the first to experience a decrease in life expectancy. These results raise serious issues and represent a rising threat to the health system. Cancer Council Australia chief executive Professor Ian Olver has justifiably warned “that this is a wake-up call for Australians. As obese kids move into adulthood, the heightened risk of chronic diseases like cancer means previous gains in life expectancy may be reversed. We may see today's teenagers die at a younger age than their parents' generation for the first time in history.”

Everyone – parents, schools, media, food and beverage companies, supermarkets, governments – has a responsibility to improve this grim picture.

The House of Representatives Health Committee recommended in 2009 that “should self-regulation not result in a decrease in…advertisements directed at children, the committee supports the Federal Government considering more stringent regulations.” We also need to support the affordability of fresh food – rising due to increasing demand, from a growing population, and declining production, due, amongst other factors, to good horticultural land being paved over for roads and spreading suburbs, is not the right way to go.