k henry - aust. sustainable pop. is 15 million, page-40

Bacci
The rapid switch on of industry is not a good way to go. A planned industry is far more stable. I remember when the gas pipelines took off in the late 70's and welders were in shortage. Everyone was doing welding courses. Problem was the Government allowed "market regulated" development and so the greed kicked in and gas pipe lines were going in all over the place. The welders made a killing (good on them). But then over supply hit (der) and the pipeline over supply lasted for the next decade and the welder either changed trades or went overseas (Saudi). When the next wave of development came there were no welders again, but the old welders didn't come back or re-take up the trade because they knew it wouldn't last long. When your out of a job for a year it really drags down your average salary over 4 years. Australia has governments which rely on immigration to boost the economy rather than developing sustained growth via exports (ie like the Scandinavian countries). The recent boom in WA iron ore will certainly produce some fall out when China begins to take up cheaper iron ore imports from Africa. Australia progress has been in spite of Government not because of it.

Interesting that when Engineers are in shortage we allow immigration, but when Doctors are in shortage ?nothing. The AMA is a VERY powerful UNION. We could knock out double the number of Doctors from Univ if we wanted to. Better still, we could be world leaders and establish a medical profession that sits between nurses and the doctors and they would act as GP's. Fancy having 6 year trained Doctors being GP's, primarily handing out antibiotics, ....what a waste of an education. Still it provides part time work of all those mum doctors who only want to work 3 days a week.