OVERLOADING AUSTRALIA - How Governments and Media Dither and Deny on Population
Mark O’Connor and William J. Lines.
Envirobook. 2008. 241 pp. RRP $19.95
Reviewed by Geoff Mosley.
Mankind is suffering from an addiction to economic and population growth which at this stage it appears only nature can cure. The justification given by the sufferers is that both forms of growth are necessary for prosperity as a result of the ever growing consumption they deliver. The fact that endless growth is impossible because the earth’s resources are finite is conveniently ignored. Discussion of the subject of growth is taboo in government circles and is rarely discussed in the media.
Sooner or later, but perhaps only when nature’s retribution becomes more obvious, people will understand the error of their ways and seek an alternative to endless growth. In the meantime there will be a few who will document and examine the contradictions inherent in the present situation and an even fewer number who will provide an outline of a broad alternative way of life to growth.
Mark O’Connor and William Lines focus on the former task, providing a text which is both an encyclopaedia and a bible on the subject of Australia’s overpopulation. Their book provides all the statistics on facts, trends and costs that the reader will need to become informed on the topic and makes the central point that it is the relatively high net immigration levels that are responsible for well over half of Australia’s high population growth, standing at 1.6% per annum in 2008.
Where the book excels is in recording how governments, the media and environment groups have dithered, distorted and obfuscated. In the case of government the main explanation given is their short term outlook and compliance with business interests. The Commonwealth Government avoids developing an open policy by means of electoral and other consultative mechanisms, preferring instead a de facto policy. State governments take population growth as a given.
According to the authors, both the media and green groups have been muted by the playing of the ‘race card’ by business interests.
Why though have environmentalists been so easily put off their stride? The development of a longer term, big picture, view depends upon the effectiveness of the conservationists. According to O’Connor and Lines these groups have fallen victim to the short term concepts of human welfare of the ‘New Class’. So while the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has had a policy which calls for nil net immigration since 1978, for many years now it has been reluctant to show leadership in promoting it.
The book essentially concentrates on its stated aim - ‘to clear the intellectual deck of twaddle and rubbish’ - but does mention the immediate solutions of abandoning pro-natalism and limiting immigration (with greater preference given to refugees); preparing the ground, it is hoped, for more comprehensive solutions addressing every major facet of the way we live.
The book also performs a valuable service in pointing to the counterproductive nature of merely attempting to mitigate problems in a way which ignores population growth. In the case of water they recommend a protest movement involving non-compliance with water restrictions. Otherwise, reduced consumption levels will be seen as an open sesame to growth. A similar point is made with regard to those overseas aid efforts which help maintain unsustainable population levels.
Saving water will of course save you money but endless growth of population will cost you the earth. Getting people to pay for deadly overpopulation is one of the biggest confidence tricks ever perpetrated on the public.
There are a few errors. For instance the 1996 State of the Environment Report was Australia’s second, not its first, and the idea that the ACF may now provide leadership on the immigration issue appears to be wishful thinking given that the Foundation is currently in the process of removing the nil net migration objective from its policy statement. These are minor quibbles compared with the value of this book. Perhaps a future edition would help the reader more if it included a time line of all the past major events relevant to the book’s thesis.
Geoff Mosley is the Australian Director of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy. He is a former Executive Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation and former member of the National population Council.
Original article
*UPDATE*
You can read another, more comprehensive review of Overloading Australia here. The review is by sociologist Dr. Katharine Betts, author of many articles and several books on the immigration issue.
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