be their fault? The point is that we cannot have an "arbitrarily large migration program" unless someone finds a way to invent water. A Pox on Both Their Houses : 23 Dec 2010 7:23:52am I agree entirely, but am yet to see anything that gives me hope for a parliament willing to engage in "a little more plannning, a little more leadership and a little more vision". These are all qualities the Laborals strive to avoid, as otherwise people might develop an expectation of effective governance, which would mean pollies would have to do more than mouth platitudes. If we expected vision from our pollies, Gillard and Abott and all their flunkies would be straight out on their bums. Phil : 23 Dec 2010 5:09:09pm People are correctly blaming our problems on population growth. Many advocating a stable population are also seeking the removal of the baby bonus. But when 60% of Australia's population growth is via net migration, then net migration is a good place to start considering that, a) net migration is directly under government control. b) net migration has increased from 70K per year in the mid 1980's to 277K last year (2009) a 4 times increase. c) nature increase (births - deaths) has been influenced by the baby bonus, but still has remained relatively flat, at 120K per year in the mid 1980's to 155K last year (2009). Why can't Australian's choose to have zero net migration like Japan or Taiwan, or a small positive net