http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-07/13/c_13397802.htm
Australia needs more migrants: demographer professor
English.news.cn 2010-07-13 15:35:56
CANBERRA, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Australia needs to lift its intake of skilled
migrants to continue growing the economy, a leading demographer said on Tuesday.
Australian National University (ANU) Professor Peter McDonald said immigration
has been a factor of labor demand and has a vital connection to economic
expansion.
"The discussion in Australia is that we can fix population growth and forget
about its relationship with the economy," McDonald told a seminar hosted by the
Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) on Tuesday.
"If the government is going to say we are going to cut immigration, I think
it's incumbent upon the government to point to the projects and economic
aspects they are not going to do."
McDonald, the director of the Australian Demographic and Social Research
Institute at ANU, said the growth of mining and other industries meant
Australia needed to fill labor shortages.
"You can't say on one hand we are going to ... have rapid ( economic) growth,
but we are not going to let people come into Australia," McDonald told
Australian Associated Press.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said last month she did not believe in a "big
Australia" policy targeting a population of 36 million by 2050, while the
federal opposition wants to scale back skilled migration in a strategy to
manage population growth.
McDonald said Australia's intake of 44,000 permanent migrants in the 2008-2009
year was insufficient to meet labor demand because it provided only 30,000 new
skilled workers, which was " well below current demand".
