If you haven't done so, Al Gore's last book "the future" is an interesting read. Love him or hate him, he makes well researched and well written points.
Productivity in the economy is no longer linked to job creation, or the number of people in a nation, with automation behind all the growth in output in the west in the last 2 decades. Who will drive taxis? Driverless cars are well in to the testing phase at the moment. Google's project cars have covered hundreds of thousands of kilometres without incident. Who's going to pick fruit. Technology and automation. That's been the way for the last 2 decades and the trend looks set to continue.
The economy doesn't need thousands of unskilled workers like it used to. Just look at rio tinto and the driverless trucks, operating in the pilbara, driven round the clock in shifts from Perth.
I haven't lived in Australia for the last 5 years or so and currently live in china. Without question, the population growth restriction policies have worked wonders for the country. There is now a huge middle class (my client base), more millionaires than there are people in Australia, and for all its faults, it's a happening place. The slowing down of the population growth enabled the country to reallocate and consolidate resources, plan effectively and now, with the relaxing of the one child policy, people have the personal wealth and education to raise their children in the best possible circumstances, linked into the global culture.
Compare that to Uzbekistan where I was for 3 years until the middle of 2014 - massive population growth, low levels of education, massive unemployment, insane inflation....
Yet no-one wants to talk to population or immigration control. If you have been to India, you will see what unfettered population growth does and it is both sad and unnecessary - if only governments would bite the bullet.
Do we want immigration - sure - some friends of mine from central asia are immigrating to australia in a few months. They are both bilingual, mid 30's, healthy, and educated. He is a computer systems designer with his own business, she is a language teacher. Skilled migrants (like my family) are the future of australia - not a borderless society which will always revert to the lowest common denominator.
