Article item posted on Sunday, September 20th 2009 at 12:46 pm

These Are People - Not Playthings For Political Gain

Everyone has strong views on immigration.  Some voters want a large and constant flow of fresh citizens, some a limited number, others want none.

Federal Labor backbencher Kelvin Thomson came out swinging on Friday, saying Australia’s projected population explosion will have a “catastrophic” effect on the environment and called for immigration levels to be cut.

He was referring to the latest Intergenerational Report predicting Australia’s population will rise from 21.5 million to 35 million in the next 40 years.

“We are sleepwalking into an environmental disaster,” he said.

Kelvin is speaking in code. Let me translate it for you:  “The Greens voters are right.  The ALP ‘understands’ and therefore deserves all of The Greens’ second preferences.”

“There will be impact on the availability of food, water, energy and land. These things are already stretched and a 60 per cent population increase will only drive up the cost of these essentials and lower our living standards,” he said.

Oh, Kelvin, you have a heart of gold, thinking of the battlers and their struggle to feed and house the kids on their modest wages.  He is talking about the competition between manual workers and fresh migrants for the limited pool of unskilled jobs in Australia.  Migrants bid down the wages of all unskilled workers, desperate to establish their lives here, and displace others from the pool of unskilled workers.

“And what about the impact on our major cities? Declining housing affordability, traffic congestion, over-crowded concrete jungles.”

I love these word pictures.  Australia 2009 – paradise at its apex – should be preserved in amber against its inevitable decline.  Never mind that land zoning, the transport network and urban planning decisions are matters entirely in the hands of government.

“Australia is blessed in the quality of life that we have and I believe that we have an obligation to pass onto our children an environment and a country in as good a condition as the one our parents left to us.”

As though we can achieve a status quo ante – going back to the way things were before somebody else did the stuff we now don’t like.

Mr Thomson wants Australia’s immigration rate cut.  Has the ALP changed its long-standing immigration policy?

Ahem, no.  Such a policy shift would be announced by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Senator Chris Evans, who looks on in silence.

But it is safe to vote ALP because it ‘understands’ voter concerns.

Kelvin Thompson’s public statement was no accident.  It was prompted by opinion polls showing widespread unease with current immigration levels and authorized at the highest level in the ALP government.  It is a crude attempt at vote harvesting, no more, no less.

Thanks, Kelvin.  This is a remarkable contribution to the debate.

It changes nothing and adds nothing.  But ALP heartland voters are reassured and can go back to snoozing in front of the telly.

David Collyer