Queensland residents want to cap population growth

Article Category: Demographics

By Craig Johnstone and Natalie Gregg, 7 December 2009

RESULTS from a Galaxy poll suggest that 60 per cent of Queenslanders want the Government to take steps to limit the state's southeast population growth explosion.

A similar proportion say forecasts of six million southeast Queenslanders by 2050 would be too many.

As the State Government prepares to beef up its population policy credentials, some mayors are protesting that growth is too far ahead of the transport system's ability to cope, The Courier-Mail reports.

Allan Sutherland, the Mayor of the Moreton Bay region, which is expected to absorb an extra 84,000 new homes over the next 20 years, said infrastructure was needed to accommodate growth.

"You can't just keep jamming terracotta roofs all over the place and not improve your transport system," he said.

The poll found that 59 per cent of those surveyed were in favour of the Government working to limit the region's population growth. Thirty-five per cent were opposed.

The result was even more emphatic among Labor supporters, with 65 per cent in favour of population limits.

The poll also found that 59 per cent of Queenslanders thought the forecast population of 6 million for southeast Queensland by the middle of the century was too much, with 33 per cent saying it was about right.

Concern over the region's growth has rekindled debate on a population cap for southeast Queensland, despite Premier Anna Bligh and property industry groups dismissing the idea.

Population growth will be a key issue at today's Council of Australian Government meeting and Ms Bligh yesterday announced the involvement of scientist Tim Flannery, demographer Bernard Salt and environmentalist Ian Lowe at next year's South-East Queensland Growth Summit on March 30 and 31.

Ms Bligh said southeast Queensland had more interstate migrants than any other state. But she said she was yet to see "any sensible or legal way" to cap the population.

"As attractive as a population cap sounds, I think it's misleading to imply to people that such a thing could be done," she said.

However, southeast Queensland head of the Sustainable Population Australia lobby group Simon Baltais said there must be a limit.

"Pro-growth lobbyists are ignoring the science . . . at the expense of the general community and the environment," he said.