Population options for Australia

Given limited ability to influence Australia’s below replacement and declining fertility rate, Australia’s population options are dependent on immigration policy. But even in this area our options are limited. In an address to the Australian Population Association Biennial Conference in October 1998, the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, the Hon Philip Ruddock, argued that neither the zero net overseas migration policy favoured by environmentalists not the massive boost in immigration favoured by the business lobby are in Australia’s national interest. Copyright. Monash University and the author/s