Tony Burke, Sustainable Population Minister of Australia, says that better regional centers are the solution to infrastructure stress and urban sprawl piling up in the capitals.

However, Mr. Burke has excluded a target for Australian national population if a Gillard administration gets re-elected, claiming that such goals only fit in the regional areas.

In an interview with Sky News, Mr. Burke argued that more specific approach was necessary, as he warns of looming community frustrations deepening over slight nuances of securing "a seat on the bus".

"There is a massive frustration, because up until now people have said our infrastructure is stretched to the limit and all we can see is more people arriving, and all I can see for my kids is they're never going to be able to afford to live in this suburb because of what's happening with housing prices," he said to Sky News.

"Now the approach has just been -- well, growth is always good, population growth is always good, there's no need for any constraints, and that's how government has approached it in the past."

Current PM Julia Gillard promised to take a different approach from former PM Kevin Rudd, on the issue of a "Big Australia", pointing out that she did not concur with the country "hurtling towards" a 40 million population. But queried on whether Labor would put forward a sustainable population goal for voters to decide on, Mr. Burke said that was not the solution. "I have yet to see an argument where a target makes sense at a national level," he remarked.

"There are . . . some areas in Western Australia where they are wanting to build communities where currently you mainly have only fly-in, fly-out."

Mr. Burke a strategy focused on new cities would most probably be part of the policy making. "I think new cities will be part of it. I also believe that broadband is going to offer a very different dynamic in the difference between where people work and where people live," he stated.

"I think places like Townsville and the vision that the Queensland government has of effectively establishing a second capital in the north, the work that Anthony Albanese is doing . . . and looking at the second tier of cities beyond the major capitals, will all bear fruit."

Scott Morrison, immigration spokesman of the Opposition, however, said that the Gillard administration was being sly by not disclosing to the voters what the population growth goal was.

"They've got no commitment whatsoever about controlling population growth at all," Mr. Morrison said to The Australian.

"Julia Gillard when she was opposition spokeswoman pledged that the policy would 'include numerical targets'. We are going to go past 36 million on current settings. On the current figures we are going to have 42 million by 2050."