Australian Population Could Hit 40M in 2050; New Political Party Pushes for Immigration Curb

At 9:57 p.m. of Tuesday, April 23, Australia's 23 millionth resident, a male child, will likely be born to a 31-year-old mother and 33-year-old father who are residents of Western Sydney.

The scenario is based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics' estimate that the country's headcount will reach 23 million this day based on natural births, deaths and overseas migration, both incoming and outgoing.

The high growth rate has alarmed some groups since it means 1 million people are added to the country's population every three years. Australia's current population growth rate is now 1.7 per cent per annum, higher than the global average of 1.1 per cent and even higher than India's 1.4 per cent.

In comparison, other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations logged much slower population increases at 0.9 per cent for the U.S. and 0.6 per cent for Britain.

A significant number of the population boost is caused by more migrants coming in that Australians moving out to other countries that the Stable Population Party, a new political party, is pushing for curbs in immigration.

William Bourke, party president, proposed that yearly immigration quotas should be reduced to just 80,000 from the current 250,000 to relieve the country's overstretched infrastructure.

He also pushed for limiting parental leave to the woman's first two children to curb natural growth.

However, it is migrants who are adding people to Australia at a faster rate than Australian women are giving birth to infants. The Immigration Department said that given the current entry of migrants, net overseas migration would grow further to 262,000 per year by mid-2016 from the current 228,000.

Combining the natural birth rate and continued migration, the ABS estimated that Australia's population could reach 33 million by 2035 and 40 million by 2050.

Mr Bourke sought better training of Australians to meet the current labour shortage which is the main reason by the country's headcount grows at a rate many consider alarming and could caused worsening congestion, urban sprawl and environmental degradation.

"We want a better Australia, not a bigger Australia," he said.