BOB CARR: There have been studies on this that have established the more immigration, the more skilled shortages there are, the more bottlenecks in skills you are likely to find. It's like the argument with an ageing population; three studies have concluded that increased immigration does nothing to counter the effect of an ageing population.
GREG HOY: Secretary of the Treasury Ken Henry has also expressed concern.
DR KEN HENRY, TREASURY SECRETARY: The latest projections about mid-century population are fully 25 per cent larger at 35 million people than the previous official figure. And that raises even stronger questions about land-use sustainability and it raises even stronger questions about infrastructure requirements, both economic infrastructure and social infrastructure.
BOB CARR: If you increase the population intake, our cities go out and they go up. I just challenge Australians concerned about more desalinated water, concerned about cities becoming high rise rather than low-density or medium-density cities, to think about the fact that the starting point for all of this is increased population growth.
