Three issues with immigration

It is great to see the issue of immigration finally moving into the mainstream public discussion and it seems to have moved beyond the xenophobia that was always a hallmark in previous debates.

There are three main issues that should be debated.

Firstly, why does the government have a target of 36 million people?

It's quite simple, as the population ages and health care becomes a huge burden, there is only one way to pay for it, and that is increase government revenue.

There is only one way to increase government revenue and that is increase the tax base. Either the government increases tax collected per capita or increase the number of people that they collect tax from.

No government will go to an election saying they will increase taxes as Australians are generally very ignorant and don't understand this, so they decide we need a big population.

Secondly, the big problem with immigration is the overall quality of our immigration intake. Am I the only person that has noticed a large number of elderly people from nationalities that have not traditionally been part of our immigration mix?

In other words, these elderly people have just arrived here on family migration visas, possibly after another family member has come through the skilled visa pathway.

What benefit could these elderly people possibly bring to this country?

Never having paid taxes they are now entitled to healthcare and pensions.

Has anyone worked out how many unskilled immigrants result from one skilled migrant?

Thirdly, is their another option altogether?

Of course there is.

It's called productivity improvements, large productivity gains during the Hawke/Keating era and also the Howard era gave us the standing of living we have today.

Unfortunately, this government who is too afraid to make any sort of minor decision has no intention of making any changes that may improve productivity, so they have fallen on the easiest option of all, increase immigration, who cares what happens in 2050 because the present crop of politicians will all be dead!

Email, 11 Apr 2010 Ross Cochrane, Woy Woy