Population can't be capped: minister

Submitted 9/04/2010

Fairfax

 


Australias first Minister for Population, Tony Burke, says it is impossible to cap the nation's population growth. Less than a week into his job, and facing calls for big cuts in migration, Mr Burke has told The Age that Australia's population would continue to expand even if the Federal Government ended all migration. ''I'm not afraid of the fact the country is growing,'' Mr Burke said. ''The fact that we are growing is just something we have to accept.'' He made the comments as a poll from the Lowy Institute showed Australians have rebuffed the idea of having 36 million people by 2050, as projected by Treasury. The poll of 1000 people found strong support for the concept of population growth but 69 per cent did not like the Treasury projection, preferring a population of 30 million or less.