WHY ISN'T THE NDP SPEAKING OUT AGAINST POPULATION GROWTH?

Somebody please wake up the engineer and tell him to slow down this runaway train!

An Australian Labour MP, Kelvin Thomson, keeps speaking out against his government's policy of mass immigration. The question is, WHY IS NOT EVEN A SINGLE MEMBER OF THE FEDERAL NDP CAUCUS DOING THE SAME THING????? Canada is the mirror image of Australia. We have lots of room but little carrying capacity. Only 5% of our land is arable, and of that, only 20% is classified as prime, "Class One" farmland. Half of that prime farmland is found in Ontario, and 60,000 acres a year of it is lost to development. That is, for housing of which 70% is occupied by foreign born residents. In the post carbon Canada to come, transportation costs will be prohibitive. And soil productivity will plumment with the lack of oil-based fertilizers. We will be hard put to feed even a fraction of our current population. Growing food, transporting it and refrigerating it will be huge challenges. We cannot allow more of it to bee built upon, or more mouths to enter the airport as landed immigrants every day.

Write the NDP and ask them why? Why aren't they showing any of Kelvin Thomson's courage, or the courage of Labour MP Frank Field in Britain??? Why is there no retired NDP provincial premier like the former Labor premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr who will make a noise about our own overpopulation? Why won't a single MP on any side of the House call for the development of a Population Plan in Canada??? This was recommended as far back as 1997 by the federally commissioned Fraser Basin Eco-study headed by UBC Professor Michael Healey. Do any MPs read these reports???? Let's let them know how outrageous their ignorance and apathy is!!! We have the highest population growth rate in the G8 group, and the second highest per capita immigration rate in the world. Somebody wake up the engineer and tell him to slow down our runaway train!!!!

COMMENT BY KELVIN THOMSON
ON RECORD MIGRATION NUMBERS

· The record number of migrants is fuelling runaway population growth in Australia, and it’s time the skilled migration program and temporary entry work permits were seriously cut back.

· The ABS figures for the year to June show net overseas migration at 285,000. It should be cut back to 70,000. We can do this while increasing the refugee program and keeping family reunion relatively constant.

· Last year’s record population growth for Australia of over 440,000 is taking us down the road to environmental disaster. It is making a mockery of our obligation to pass on to our children a world, and an Australian way of life, in as good a condition as the one our parents gave to us.

· Two examples from the last couple of days – first the Penguin chicks at Phillip Island who starved because there is simply not enough fish in the sea for the adults to bring home to them. Second, the Reserve Bank’s interest rate rise this week. Interest rate rises are being fuelled by house price rises, and these are being fuelled by population growth. Housing affordability is falling, and our children are being denied the same opportunity to purchase a house that we had.

· Population growth is galloping along on all fronts – the number of migrants, students and long term workers is up 15% compared with last year, the number of departures is down, and the birth-rate is up – a record 300,000, with a fertility rate of 1.98%.

· This is putting pressure on water supplies, and upward pressure on food, water, petrol and energy prices. It is damaging the quality of life in our cities through traffic congestion and loss of open space. And everybody’s talking at the moment about how to cut our carbon emissions. It’s pretty hard to reduce your carbon footprint when you keep adding new feet.

· Friday 4th December, 2009