australia accepted 200000 boat people, page-28

its all about water in the end
we just don't have enough glasses of water for boatpeople

BOB CARR: The issue is not population growth, it's not a generous immigration policy. The issue is the rate of population growth. We had a net intake a few years ago of 160,000. Now we've got something like half a million people arriving here - that includes short stay people, very often becoming long stay. That's been a very significant ramping up, and it's happened without any environmental impact statement. You've gotta have an environmental impact statement for every activity under state and federal planning law that has a significant impact on the environment. But the most significant factor shaping what happens to the Australian environment is the rate of immigration, and no EIS has been required and no public discussion has taken place about, effectively, a doubling of the intake. And this happens without any reference to the reliability of Australia's rainfall patterns. I have no idea what the people settling on these ambitious targets are basing their targets on when it comes to rainfall data. The rainfall data I'm aware of is very fragile, and every state in Australia, mainland state since 2006 has had to resort to desalination because of the pressure on rain sources of drinking water. And this is - anyone who's making assumptions about rainfall reliability over the next 20 or 30 years in Australia is on a fool's mission.