Catholic Diocese of Broome

Tony Burke has been appointed Australia’s first Minister for Population. From all accounts his job will be to match the challenges of population expansion to the provision of goods and services, making sure infrastructure keeps up with demand. That sort of thing. This is a great relief as the title itself, Minister for Population, conjures up sinister bureaucratic husbandry of family life as evidenced in Communist China. There the comrades take great delight haranguing young couples and applying fines for excessive reproduction. Not so much a picture of reds under the bed, you see, but rather reds well and truly in it and counting!

The appointment of Mr Burke seemed a sensible one and innocent enough. However it is amazing at just how much the announcement of such a Ministry coaxed into the headlines the usual suspects who appeared waving their “Too Many People” placards. Sensing a blow to the notion of family they came howling through media outlets, almost braying for the blood of anyone glancing at prams or admiring baby clothes or, heaven help us, having babies! One would think that such behaviour was the very nemesis of a modern state. Discussions bloomed about what is the right number for the population of Australia and the figures bounced back and forth around the thirty or thirty-five million mark by the year 2050. There was no proof offered for these hastily stitched-up opinions that our population needs savage ordering. Rather, with media assistance, we were entertained by a chorus of malcontents threatening disaster should the number go over this ill-defined magical figure.

Much of the argument, if you can call it that, revolved around the shortage in Australia of that precious commodity - water! Governments wanting to put the price up for this essential item are quick to turn public attention away from their own incompetence as they lambast people for being undisciplined users and wasters. We mustn’t mention the inadequate planning by government that left us without sufficient dams and storage, unprepared as we were to cope with one hundred year droughts. That’s a bit too close to the political bone.

There is also more than a shadow of a doubt that the cry for stringent population boundaries in this country is actually code for keeping the immigrants at bay and off our streets. Interestingly enough, Chambers of Commerce and their fellow industry captains want a greater population and more skilled workers but, if pressed, they don’t want babies - only clever adult consumers. Some of the complainers want the baby bonus removed, convinced that too many babies about the place is like encountering an outbreak of anthrax. Unfortunately none of these social engineers has ventured a word as to how they might be assisted in their old age by decidedly fewer followers.

This debate about population in our country could become serious and intelligent when the proponents of misery and the disciples of a culture of death sit down and stop brandishing their hasty opinions. When the country itself comes to some understanding as to what sort of nation we want to be – self-centred and consumer driven or justice minded and living simply – then we might be able to have a sagacious, useful and truly productive conversation about the nation’s population.