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Economics

• An increase in GDP generally results from an increase in population but does not necessarily translate into better GDP per capita, nor an increase in quality of life, nor is it equally distributed²³.
• In 2004, 14 of the 16 wealthiest nations, based on GDP per capita, had populations and population growth rates lower than Australia's²⁴.
• Providing infrastructure and housing for an evergrowing population diverts money from investment in education, research and development, and in hi-tech industries that lead to real development²⁵.
• In world of finite resources, a dynamic steady state economy must replace the concept of economic growth.
• When the population of a country exceeds its natural resource base, that is, when it becomes unsustainable, the costs of providing infrastructure and basic services such as water supplies increase²⁶.
• Poorer members of society (often new migrants themselves) bear the brunt of high immigration through the downward pressure on wages and through increased costs of housing and services²⁷.
• Australia depends heavily on skilled migrants²⁸, often from poorer countries that cannot afford to lose them, because its educational and training institutions do not provide enough of the skills required for proper functioning of its economy³⁰.
• Thousands of skilled migrants are either unemployed or employed in low-skilled jobs such as driving taxis or working in restaurants and supermarkets. Many skilled arrivals who were supposed to settle in needy country areas are living in cities^28a.
• An increase in the supply of labour (through population growth and immigration) relative to the supply of capital and supply of natural resources will, in a free labour market, cause wages to fall.
• Thousands of low-cost information and communication (ICT) workers are entering the country and undermining the job prospects of new graduates, driving down salaries and contributing to high unemployment amongst ICT workers under 30^28b.
• Population growth, particularly caused by immigration, causes demand for housing to exceed supply, and inflation of land prices, leading to a shortage of affordable housing and an increase in homelessness.
• Population growth causes infrastructure such as roads, schools and hospitals, telecommunications networks, electricity and water supply systems and sewerage networks to become overburdened and requires expensive new infrastructure to be built at taxpayer expense.

^References

^{23. House of Representatives Committee (chair Barry Jones). Report into Australia's population carrying capacity Dec 1994. One Nation - Two Ecologies. p109.}

^{24. CIA. World Fact Book, 2004 http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html}

^{25. House of Representatives Committee (chair Barry Jones). Report into Australia's population carrying capacity Dec 1994. One Nation - Two Ecologies. p106.}

^{26. ABC-TV. Catalyst. 14 March 2002. “Running Dry”. http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s498835.htm}

^{27. Macken, Deidre. "Where policy's too close for comfort". Australian Financial Review. 2 March 2002.}

^{28. DIMIA. 2002-03 Migration and Humanitarian Programs - discussion paper (revised edition. Jan 02) p14.}

^{28a. Masanauskas, John. “Skilled migrant program failing", The Herald Sun, July 21, 2005.}

^{28b. Crowe, David. "Immigrants taking local IT jobs: report." Australian Financial Review, 7 July 2004.}

^{30. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1494358.htm}