Australia's immigration will slacken under the new leadership, New Prime Minister Julia Gillard signalled yesterday, amid rising concerns on the nation's swelling population.

The former lawyer who usurped the role from Mr Kevin Rudd last week said that the population system has to strike the right balance between expansion and sustainability.

"I don't believe in a big Australia," Ms Gillard said. "I don't believe in simply hurtling down a track to a 36-million or 40-million population."

Mr Rudd recently endorsed a "big Australia", citing government statistics that the country's population would burgeon from 22 million today to 35 million by 2050 through increasing birth rates and immigration.

The new leader, however, said such population growth could raise concerns given Australia's water scarcity, the difficulty in delivering services across the vast landscape and transport infrastructure.

"I think we want an Australia that is sustainable. This place is our sanctuary, our home," she said.
Welsh-born Ms Gillard, who came to Australia with her parents when she was four, said, however, that immigration for skilled labour was still needed, and that Canberra would keep accepting refugees.

Immigration is a delicate matter in Australia, where boatloads of outlanders from countries, including Afghanistan and Sri Lanka seek asylum.

Issues regarding the refugees, along with the delaying of a carbon emissions trading scheme and a new tax on mining profits, are believed to have been behind the poor rating that led Ms Gillard to contest Mr Rudd's leadership of the party.

Meanwhile, Ms Gillard said she had gone a "big step" in ending the dispute over a planned RSPT by cancelling government advertisements on the issue.
The mining industry responded by ceasing their anti-tax campaign, which had argued that the proposed tax would injure Australia's most valuable export industry.

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