ELECTION 2010: Calls for Gillard to back up sustainable population call with policies

With the official election campaigning suspended today to allow Prime Minster Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to attend the funeral of soldier Private Nathan Bewes in Murwillumbah, the focus has turned to Gillard and her call for a rethink on Australia’s population.

After dismissing former Prime Minster Kevin Rudd’s push to create a “Big Australia” with a population of 36 million by 2050, Gillard has repeatedly called for Australia to adopt a “sustainable” population policy.

However, exactly what policy levers Gillard is prepared to pull remain unclear.

Yesterday, when asked if she would look at cutting immigration, Gillard said the focus should be on improved planning.

“I don’t believe that this is an immigration debate… I believe it’s a debate about planning and policy choices for the nation’s future, about where we want to see growth,” she told reporters in Sydney.

“We do need skilled migrants, definitely.”

This morning, Sustainable Population Minister Tony Burke said on Sydney radio that both sides of politics had been “slow” to take up the population issue but said Australia was better placed than ever to address it, as the mining boom and the NBN roll out had created the opportunity to encourage population increases in regional areas.

But while the debate about population is clearly a complex one – particularly in light of Australia’s looming skills crisis, which was highlighted by a new report earlier this week – commentators are now calling on Gillard to reveal actual policy initiatives to support her sustainable population call.

One of the most savage critics has been former Labor leader Mark Latham, who accused Gillard of being a fraud on the issue.

“Any leader with an ounce of sense would take the Bob Carr approach of saying that good planning is not enough,” he said in an interview with Sky News.

“…If Gillard wants to have a population debate and policy, it needs by definition, to be an immigration debate and an immigration reduction.”

But while Latham was critical of the fact Gillard’s “sustainable” population position was not supported by policy, he did say it was brilliant policy, allowing her to appeal to those concerned about asylum seekers and those worried about the environmental impacts of a bigger population.

“So I think that some smartie in the Labor Party has worked out that this could perhaps help save four seats in western Sydney and it can be used as a proxy in the climate change debate”

The business community has also been critical of the way the population issue has been handled during the election, with Woodside and National Australia Bank chairman Michael Chaney saying there was a danger legitimate migrants were being put in the same category as asylum seekers.