Immigration stressing Australian infrastructure

There are large political difficulties in providing new infrastructure. Just to take a very obvious example: More people increases the demand for water. So build news dams to supply it? Not if the Greenies have any say! And they do. The problems are political, not technical -- but that does not mean that they can easily be overcome

The congestion problems in the news this week have the same cause as a lot of other problems that make the Herald's front page. They're due to our increasing population, or more precisely, our failure to make adequate provision for it.

This might seem obvious, but in fact Sydney is in a state of denial about population increase. We don't prepare for it adequately and seem constantly surprised that public services and infrastructure fail. When they do, we blame politicians, or climate change, or the greed of people (other people) for cars and houses and air conditioning. Anything but what is often the main cause, population growth. This comes from births, migration from other parts of Australia, and immigration, but it's only the last category we have much control over.

This week the Bureau of Statistics announced that last year the nation's population grew at its fastest rate since 1988. The growth rate was 1.6 per cent, or 331,900 people. Net overseas migration contributed 56 per cent of that increase. As is well known, a large proportion of those people settle in Sydney. But for years, Sydney has just pretended it wasn't happening..

Water is a good example because it's so simple. A Water Supply Strategic Review prepared for the Water Board in 1991 noted that since Warragamba Dam had been completed in 1960, Sydney's water storage capacity had been increased by only 2 per cent. This was despite an increase in population from 2.3 million to 3.6 million. The report noted, given the projected future population increase, "if measures are not taken to provide Sydney with additional storage, early in the next century there will be a real risk of serious water restrictions being necessary".

The rest is history, but try to find anyone today who will admit our water restrictions are the result of population growth and the failure by governments to respond adequately. Much easier to blame drought and global warming.

The same thing can be seen with other issues. Just this week in the Herald there's been coverage of a report on road congestion by the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Among other things, the report advocates building more roads to keep pace with population increase. The Roads Minister, Eric Roozendaal, rejected the report as the work of "academics in ivory towers". He also rejected a proposal by the institute for congestion pricing of traffic.

So what do the streetwise guys in government propose as a response to population pressure on our roads? In relation to the size of the problem, just about nothing. When you consider the Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics has predicted an 18 per cent increase in car use by 2020 due to population growth, maybe we need something better.

Why has the link between immigration numbers and the above issues been ignored? One reason is that state governments have no say in those numbers. And the Federal Government has no (direct) responsibility for most of the problems they cause. If Kevin Rudd knew that when he bumped immigrant numbers up he'd be responsible for all the extra schools, hospitals and roads that would be needed, he might think twice.

Another reason immigration has been ignored is because to question it is to be seen as politically incorrect, even racist. This could why the environmental movement has largely ignored it, despite its central role in the problems the movement talks about all the time. The Australian Greens' record on this has been documented by author and conservationist William J. Lines. Writing with Natalie Stone in People and Place in 2003, he noted: "Originally promulgated in 1995, the [Green] party's population policy was revised in 1998 and again in 2002. With each revision the Greens altered their principles, lessened their commitment to limiting population growth . [and] replaced concern about population and environmental degradation with a social justice, global human rights platform."

Before the policy launch for the 1998 federal election, "the Greens' immigration policy proposed that 'Australia's voluntary immigration program be reduced as part of a strategy to achieve eventual stabilisation of the Australian population'. Subsequent policies dropped this strategy entirely and made no recommendation to reduce immigration. In fact the [policy] targets now openly encourage immigration". Another rollover occurred in the Australian Conservation Foundation. In his book Patriots (UQP), Lines describes how in the 1990s "each successive leader [of the ACF] displayed an extreme reluctance to discuss population".

Barry Cohen, the former Labor politician, noted recently that it is bizarre to hold apocalyptic beliefs about human-induced climate change while supporting near-record levels of immigration.

It's time for a national conversation about immigration numbers. We'll be starting from a long way behind. At the moment the Government doesn't even have an overall number for immigration for next year, which is strange when you consider the Prime Minister's belief in planning and targets. The issue of population was treated in a trivial manner by the 2020 Summit, which arrived at the following vision: "By 2020 we will have a sustainable population and consumption policy: while the population grows, net consumption should decrease." Let's get real.

Steve Bracks, the former Victorian premier, has called for the premiers' conference to devise a population policy and then look at how the nation will cope with the resultant immigrant numbers. He wants the Commonwealth to give more money for this purpose to the states. Whatever figure is arrived at, this sounds like a sensible approach.

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Government child safety agency fails yet again

There are a lot of dead kids to testify to their bureaucratic incompetence

The desperate plight of three children found murdered by their violent father yesterday was known to the NSW Department of Community Services, which gave up on them. Just days earlier, the children's father Gary Bell, 44 was released by police on bail after bashing his wife, with the officers notifying the beleaguered department about Jack, 7, Maddie, 5 and Bon, aged just 18 months.

Last night, hours after their tiny bodies and their dead father were found in a 4WD at the family's home at Pericoe on the Far South Coast, DOCS admitted it failed to reach the family and offered the excuse that staff had tried. It is believed the children and father had been dead for days. The Daily Telegraph can reveal DOCS had been notified twice previously over concerns for the children, once in 2005 when Bell was charged with assault, and again in 2006.

The children's shattered mother Karen was being comforted by her mother in Bega last night, where it is believed she had been staying since leaving her husband. Mrs Bell's father Harold last night told The Daily Telegraph that Bell had "never touched the kids until now". "He shouldn't have killed the kids. He should have just killed himself," the shattered grandfather said. He said his daughter, 33, had an opportunity to take the children and leave following last week's assault "but she didn't".

It is understood Bell was released on bail by police on Sunday because he had just one prior charge of assault in 2005. He was due to appear in court on July 15 on the domestic violence charge.

Neighbours and those close to the couple yesterday described the horrific abuse suffered by Mrs Bell over several years with injuries including black eyes and bruises. Neighbour Tony Boller said he received a desperate call from Mrs Bell last Saturday. "There was a disturbance, there was a lot of screaming and yelling while she was on the phone to the house. She was being assaulted," Mr Boller said. Mr Boller, who lives on the site of the former commune named Two Creeks where the Bells lived, said Mrs Bell fled the property after the weekend assault. Other neighbours said police had hunted Bell in bushland on the property at 3am on Sunday. "She left. I just don't think he was coping with looking after the kids," Mr Boller said.

The children were murdered in a large 4WD which had piping connecting it to a generator. It is believed they were drugged before dying from exhaust fumes. Police made the horrific discovery at 11.15am yesterday.

"He should never have been released (this week)," another neighbour said. "I wanted to ring DOCS, you don't know how much I regret that. They were beautiful, sweet little kids."

Another neighbour, pensioner Rick O'Hara described the area as a "gulag". "It really is the valley of failure. This place is rotten," he said.

DOCS were notified this week by police of the latest assault but in a statement last night the department attempted to defend itself with claims it was unable to reach the family. "In recent days, DOCS was informed that police had taken out an apprehended violence order against the children's father," the statement said. "DOCS staff subsequently made a number of attempts to contact the family to provide support but was unable to reach them." [phone calls only, no doubt] ...

The family had lived at Two Creeks, which has attracted people wanting an alternative lifestyle since the 1970s, for about five years.

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Muslim fraud on the taxpayer

Australian Islamic College founder Abdallah Magar and two of his principals have been charged with fraud in relation to $3 million of Government funding. The Major Fraud Squad laid the charges after an 18-month investigation into offences alleged to have occurred in relation to the management of the AIC schools in Thornlie, Kewdale and Dianella. It is alleged the colleges defrauded $653,073 from the WA Government and $2,513,087 from the Federal Government from 2005 to 2006. Mr Magar and the two principals allegedly defrauded State and Federal government student subsidised funding programs by claiming for students who were not attending the colleges.

Mr Magar, 69, of Attadale, was charged today with 10 counts of gaining benefit by fraud for another person and five counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception. Mark Brian Debowski, 50, of Nedlands, was charged with two counts of gaining benefit by fraud for another person and one count of obtaining a financial advantage by deception. Aziz Magdi, 53, of Alfred Cove, was charged with six counts of gaining benefit by fraud for another person and three counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.

Police said this morning that the charges resulted from inquiries conducted into material seized from search warrants executed by state police, helped by the Federal Department of Education and Workplace Relations Investigations Unit, at the three colleges on 30 January 2007 and subsequent interviews with witnesses.

The State Government gave the college $4.3 million in per capita grants in 2004-05. The Federal Government provided $13.3 million in 2006 and $11.5 million in 2005.

Education Minister Mark McGowan said that he hoped the Islamic Colleges would stay open. But Mr McGowan said that new auditing processes had been put in place to ensure that funding was based only on real student numbers as for all private schools. Mr McGowan said if there were a guilty finding, the WA Government would work with the Commonwealth and "pursue all avenues" to recover the allegedly defrauded money. "There's various ways in which we can do that,"" Mr McGowan said. "We can cut back on future grants. We can seek a repayment from the school. They're the avenues we'll adopt if there is a guilty finding." He said the future operation of the school would be determined by its school board.

In January last year, police raided the three colleges and Mr Magar's office in Booragoon in relation to the allegations. A team of six full time investigators were involved in the investigation, with 200 statements taken, and more than 200 archive boxes, 12 filing cabinets and 15 computers examined. Both the State Department of Education Services and the Federal Department of Education and Workplace Relations were involved in the investigation. All three men will appear in the Perth Magistrates Court on July 2, 2008.

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GM wheat superior in Australia's dry climate

Will Australia's farmers fall for the charms of drought-resistant wheat, even if it's genetically modified? Faced with climate change and a growing food crisis, enthusiasts certainly hope such traits will help overcome aversion to GM technology.

Of 24 strains of GM wheat tested in field trials, two lines exceeded the yield of the non-GM variety by 20 per cent under drought conditions, according to German Spangenberg of the Victoria Department of Primary Industries in Melbourne, Australia. The results were presented last week at the Bio2008 convention in San Diego, California.

Environmental groups remain unconvinced. "The main driver of genetic engineering is to make it possible to patent crop strains. That won't help farmers in developing countries who need to keep back seeds for their next year's crop," says Louise Sales of Greenpeace Australia in Sydney.

Australian farmers may yet be persuaded. The forecast for this year's wheat crop has just been trimmed by 9 per cent because of dry conditions, although it may still be up by 10 million tonnes compared to last year's drought-devastated crop.

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