Australia’s growing and ageing population has risen to the top of the national debate, with concerns over skill shortages balanced against concerns regarding the continent’s environmental carrying capacity in the face of global warming and other challenges. Current considerations regarding housing and transport, hospitals and aged care facilities, food production and employment must increasingly be led by an overarching population policy.
To celebrate Global Access Partners' National Economic Review 2011: Australia's Annual Growth Summit, this month we are highlighting housing, transport, health, immigration, employment and other key issues surrounding population in Australia.
Population growth will have a major impact on every consideration, from land development and industrialisation, infrastructure planning, job creation, health and education modernisation to reform of the agricultural and resource industries, science and technology and the wider social and cultural development of Australia. The Summit will focus on the opportunities it offers the national economy.
The Summit held in Sydney on 16 September at Parliament House in Sydney, was designed to promote discussion before and after the event.
If you would like to share your ideas on any area related to population in Australia, upload your blog today or email us today.
VIEW FULL PROGRAMME FOR NATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW 2011 (pdf)
MEDIA RELEASE: 14 SEPTEMBER 2011 (pdf)
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RELATED CONTENT:
TRANSCRIPTS FROM THE SUMMIT
ASSOCIATED BLOGS AND ARTICLES
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Comments
I don't have a blog to add
I don't have a blog to add but, as a slightly older gentleman I must say that I think the younger generations worry too much about these kinds of things. If people stopped throwing so much food away there would be enough for everyone.
Totally agree with you!
Yes! I totally agree with you!
The Steady State Economy concept
Like many others I believe that economists do not understand that our economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of our environment -not the reverse, and that we must understand the economics of the ecological system in order to have a sustainable global society. The system has inputs to it in the form of resources which are now limited by the concept of "Peak everything" (Peak Oil, peak water, peak land, peak people, peak fish, peak gas in 2040, peak iron ore in 2050 perhaps even peak coal in 2030) and outputs in the form of wastes.
The reality is that we have reached our limits; this is the ecological overshoot of the human economy. We have exceeded a "safe operating distance" on three of nine crucial planetary boundaries which are the preconditions for human development (Rockstrom et al Ecol & Soc. 2009). These are the Nitrogen Cycle, biodiversity loss and climate change.
In a social context our economy grew twenty-four fold last century, however, there are still a billion people living on less than a dollar each day and 2.7 billion existing on less than two dollars each day. Happiness indices show that after reaching a critical level of income which provides basic needs that our happiness has been decreasing since the late 1950s.
A steady sate economy is opposed to the pursuit of endless (and fruitless) economic growth and understands the need for a stable level of resource consumption and a stable population through the reduction of energy and resources to levels within ecological limits and the replacement of the goal of maximising output of materials with the goal of maximising quality of life.
http://steadystate.org/enough-is-enough/
Rob Gell
Director, World Wind Pty Ltd
President, Greening Australia Ltd
2011 GAP Summit Delegate
very well said Rob..:)
very well said Rob..:) I do agree that economic crisis happens due to exhaustion of our resources and for that we really must participate in every way we can to somehow prolonge the life of whatever resources we still have these days. Anyway, because of the truth that economic crisis hit everyone in the country, a lot of bad guys now go for stealing dogs. According to the article I read, desperate times result in desperate measures. Across the country, crime has seen a reduction in the last numerous years. However one crime rate is going up -- dognapping. Some say this is because of the down-turned economic climate. Others, however, see more mundane factors for the trend. Source for this article: Are dognappings yet another sign of uncertain financial times
Yes Australia is Facing this issue
Thanks for picking this topic and share it with us. We should control our population otherwiese we all will face same problem like china and India.
Thanks