ENG417 ENG 417 Project 1 1 ENG417 Sustainability Project 1 Should Australia have a population policy? Background Australia does not have a population policy or strategy despite suggestions to the...

Running Head: AUSTRALIA’S POPULATION POLICY        1
AUSTRALIA’S POPULATION POLICY         13
ENG417 Sustainability
Project 1
Australia’s population policy
Executive Summary
This assignment deals with the population policy of Australia. Various steps taken by the government have been discussed in the assignment. The issues of fertility and immigration for Australia have been critically discussed. In addition to that, the population policies of various developed countries like Germany, Japan and United Kingdom have been discussed. Suggestion have been made to ensure that the population of Australia can be made stable. The impact of increase in population on the demand for water has been discussed in details. Due to increasing demands, there will be various issues that have been discussed in the later part of the assignment.
Table of Contents
Introduction    4
Previous attempts of Australia to deal with population    4
Comparison of population policy of Australia with that of other countries    7
Sustainability implication of increasing population on demand for water    9
Conclusion    10
References:    12
Introduction
The current population of Australia is around 24.1 million as per the estimates of the United Nations. Australia constitutes around 0.32% of the world population. It ranks 54 in terms of the list of most populated countries with a population density of three per square kilometre. Most of the population of Australia lives in the urban areas. The median age of the country is 37.5 years. In the current times, there is no overarching population policy or strategy. Number of recommendation have been made over the years in this regard. Across the world, population policy focuses primarily on births and immigration. During the post war period, the country adopted a 2% population growth target. This assignment deals with identifying various attempt to define optimal population along with comparing such policy measures with that of other countries.
Previous attempts of Australia to deal with population
The median age of Australia is 37.5 years that indicates an ageing population. An ageing population is not a good symbol for the economy as it indicates a decrease in efficiency of the work force due to increase in age. According to the views of Chalmers, Lancaster and Hughes (2016), since the 1970s, the immigration policy of Australia makes no differentiation between the countries of origin of potential immigrants. In the past, Australian government has never framed a direct policy for altering the fertility rate. There were generalised family support policies but they were seen to assist the families with children rather than influencing the birth rate.
During 2001, there was a significant decline in the fertility rate to 1.71 births per woman. Due to such a decreasing rate, the government launch a policy aimed at supporting the families with children like bonus per baby, new childcare subsidy. In 2004, there was a significant improvement in the fertility rate per woman to 2 child per woman. However, the credit of such an improvement cannot be given to the policy of government as it may be due to improved economic condition or change in timing of births that were unrelated to policy measures.
Similar to any other country, Australia has been focusing on reducing the death rates. In the recent times, these policies are more directed towards the disadvantaged groups in Australia that is the indigenous species and other low-income group. As per the opinion of Cheng et al. (2018), immigration policies of Australia also has a major impact on the demographics of Australia. During 1947, the immigration policies aimed at increasing the diversity and size of the population of Australia. However, a decade later, the policies were reframed to target the requirement of increasing skills level in the labour market, so that the demands of labour can be met in the developing economy.
During the 1990s, there was a redesigning of the permanent migration program as a programme based on assessment of skills. In this the application were received that varied upon the skills set possessed by the individual and the skills required in the Australian Labour Market. More than one lakh people entered Australia via the skill stream in 2010. Permanent migration status was also provided to the partners, parents, dependent children through the family stream. According to the views of Chalmers, Lancaster and Hughes (2016), the country allowed migration of outsiders due to the requirement of the skilful workers. During the mid-1990s, there was an immigration programme in Australia that was solely focused on permanent migration.
Temporary labour immigration was introduced during mid-1990s through Long-Stay According to the perspective of Bryan et al. (2016), business Visa that enabled the Australian employers to hire employees for a time of six months to four years for completion of various specified tasks. Any such scheme should be flexible and responsive to avoid the delay involved in offshore permanent migration programme. The scheme introduced during the mid-1990s was slow in the starting but expanded with rapid pace during the years that witnessed high economic growth that is during 2003-2008. The holders of the business visa were also permitted to apply for the permanent residence on-shore and many individuals did the same. The number of on-shore application for permanent residence were more in comparison to the offshore applicants. The government also favoured the onshore application as employer backed it and the individual had a working experience in the Australian region (Berlin Institut, 2018).
Mass immigration was a common phenomenon in Australia. In addition to that, the couples were called to postulate or perish. Although the immigration policy was successful but the women were the big losers in the push for the births. The National population enquiry of 1975 proved to be significant moment in the demography of Australia. The inquiry identified that Australia should not seek to influence population, but should respond and anticipate.
During the 1990s, there was a revision in the population policy of Australia, but the report in 1994 did not indicate an optimum size of population. Sustainable strategy for population was launched in the year 2011. In this policy, there was no recommendation for optimum policy, but the limit on population were removed after that. As per the opinion of McDonald (2016), there have been various recommendations but the country has so far resisted itself from adopting a population policy. There were unsuccessful attempts due to issues in gaining the political support and a number of concerns relating...