Dear Director
Review of the Student Visa Program
Question 7.2 of the Discussion Paper asks: How can Government, the Parliament and the Australian community be assured that the Student Visa Program is contributing to community confidence in Australia's migration program?
We submit that community confidence in the migration program is dependent upon each component of the program being subject to an overarching Population Policy. Any move to increase student numbers from 140,000 in 1997 to over 200,000 by the year 2000 would have to be offset by a reduction in other areas of the migration program.
Australia's population of 18.4 million is not living sustainably within the limits of its resource base. Most people accept this as a starting point, but then irrationally hope that we can somehow change our resource use, consumption and pollution-generating patterns - be saved by the so-called 'technological fix'.
It is, however, widely accepted that for any level of production, consumption and waste generation, the more people there are, the greater is the impact on the environment. Sadly, too, the environmental impact of our growing population is compounded by our rising per capita consumption of raw materials and our increasing per capita greenhouse gas emissions. Short-term visitors (including students) make a considerable impact as part of the human burden this country is forced to support and they must be included in Australia's total population.
In any ecosystem in which the health of the ecological systems is being preserved, a dynamic BALANCE exists between the various players in that ecosystem. Biological diversity is assured and no species drives out others by increasing its numbers.
The maintenance of biological diversity is central to the thinking of any environmentalist; it also became a legal responsibility of all Australian governments following the adoption of the May 1992 Intergovernmental Agreement on the Environment. There can be no doubt that continuous growth of human population numbers runs counter to the commitment to maintain ecological processes. Yet many Government policies and programs prevent Australia's population from stabilising.
Australia's population grows as a result of natural increase and the international movement of people. For the 1995/96 year Australia's natural increase was 126,000. Births outnumbered deaths by two to one. Births will continue to outnumber deaths for at least the next thirty years. Australia's population will peak by 2031, at around 21 million, and return to 18 million approximately 100 years later, provided there are balanced international movements of people.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics' projections show that with an annual net migration gain (NMG) of 100,000 (and no change in the number of children Australians choose to have) Australia's resident population in 2051 will be 28.3 million - 53% larger than today - and still growing.
NMG for 1995/96 was 114,200.
The sort of growth of the Overseas Student Program envisioned in this paper would add 20,000 annually to the NMG, and would prove unacceptable to an informed community. Alternatively it would require a drop in the established Immigration Program which may be politically difficult to implement.
We submit that community confidence in the migration program is dependent upon the Government developing a Population Policy for Australia. Any attempt to increase Australia's population through an expanded Overseas Student Program would cause considerable alarm in the community.
Yours for a sustainable future
Gordon E. Hocking Spokesman, Population Committee Sutherland Shire Environment Centre 29 July 1997
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