With more than 400,000 migrants arriving in Australia in the last financial year, veteran businessman Dick Smith is one of many high-profile Australians calling for urgent stabilization of the population before it is too late.
Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) has more than 17,000 signatures, including Mr Smith’s, for its “Say NO to a Greater Australia!” campaign. campaign, a few months before the federal elections, where immigration is expected to be a major topic of conversation.
“We are on track to double our population, which will be a disaster for Australia,” Smith, 80, told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.
The philanthropist said neither the Government nor the Opposition have any plans to control Australia’s population growth, while the SPA has called for policies that would see the population stabilize below 30 million.
‘Every Australian family has a population plan. They can have 20 children throughout their lives, but none of them do,” he said.
‘Everyone has the number of children they can give a good life to. So everyone has a plan. But as far as the country is concerned, we don’t have any plan.”
Despite his enormous wealth, the millionaire admits he is worried about the future of his nine grandchildren amid record immigration to Australia.
He said the lack of a plan to address the problem is due to large corporations.
Veteran businessman Dick Smith (pictured) is one of many prominent Australians who have signed a new position statement calling for the stabilization of Australia’s population.
“Billionaires who have doubled their wealth in the last 10 years just want more money,” Mr Smith said.
‘And one of the biggest drivers of population growth is real estate developer Harry Triguboff. He’s already worth $22 billion (but) he constantly generates more immigration because he desperately wants more money.
In May, Triguboff, founder and CEO of homebuilding giant Meriton, called for more immigration.
“The immigrants we bring must be from all over,” he said.
‘Many countries have residents who would be happy to come. Many people suffer abroad and are often well educated and used to hard work. We must have both.’
But Smith dismissed such comments, sarcastically suggesting that this strategy would lead to “just endless growth, I guess, until we run out of food.”
He noted that many politicians claim to want a lower level of immigration until they get to the point where they can do something about it, but choose not to, including John Howard, who was prime minister from 1996 to 2007.
“Up until John Howard’s time, we had an estimated immigration of around 70,000 net people a year for many decades, and that gave us a wonderful Australia where we could get by (and) housing was affordable,” Mr Smith said.
‘That was the optimal number, about 70,000 a year, which is what I support. Now it’s around 300,000 a year, or (in the 2022-2023 financial year), it was 500,000.”
Sustainable Population Australia has gathered more than 17,000 signatures for its ‘Say NO to a Greater Australia!’ campaign. Campaign. Pictured is a crowded Bondi beach.
Smith said the only people who benefit from very high levels of immigration are the extremely wealthy.
“It’s really good for billionaires… greed, they’ll just make crazy amounts of extra money,” he said.
‘But for almost everyone else, (they will be) worse off because the wealth of our country is fixed, it is fixed from the mineral and primary resources that we have.
“Double the population and everyone is worth half as much.”
Smith warns that living conditions will be bleak for future generations, who could find themselves “crammed” into huge Chinese-style apartments if immigration remains at current levels.
‘In the interest of our children and grandchildren, we should have a population plan. “It is a dry and arid country and yes, I have no doubt that we can put 100 million here, but there will be many really poor people,” he said.
They will be crammed together like termites and battery chickens in skyscrapers. We are already building our first high-rise schools so that they don’t even have a yard to play in.
“So in a country that has so much open space, we will end up with termite mounds and it will be a huge leap backwards because of our own stupidity.”
Smith dismissed the “ridiculous” idea that Australia needs mass immigration to stem a huge skills shortage across the country.
“We should train people to fill those positions,” he said.
Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) national president Peter Strachan agrees.
“Australians are angry about the impact of rapid population growth on their lives and frustrated that their voices are not being heard by our political leaders,” he said.
Strachan said the 17,000 signatures showed that “Australians have spoken and are waiting for our federal leaders to join us at the table”.
‘Poll after poll shows the majority of Australians want population growth to stop. “Congestion, the cost of living, the housing crisis, along with concerns about the environment and water security are just some of the reasons why Australians are looking for real leadership on this issue,” he said.
“People are tired of their voices being ignored by vested interests, including property developers, big business and, counterintuitively, many environmental and conservation organisations.”