Why we support Sustainable Australia Party
Established in 2010, Sustainable Australia is an independent federally registered party from the political centre. It aims to secure an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable Australia.
According to analysis of Australian Electoral Commission Senate results[1], over one million Australians voted for Sustainable Australia in their top six Senate choices in the 2016 federal election. This was a creditable result given a name change just months before, and great difficulty in achieving fair coverage in the mainstream media.
Sustainable Australia has greatly helped to create a platform for increasing mature discussion over Australia’s population policy (mainly contributed to by immigration), from important economic, environmental and social perspectives. This includes the following articles and reports:
ABC: ‘High immigration masks Australian economic decline’ [2]
University of Adelaide: ‘Population policy to impact emissions targets’ [3]
Macro Business: 'Slash immigration for affordable housing’ [4]
Importantly for Sustainable Australia and its stakeholders, immigration reform must be non-discriminatory. It must be done on the basis of immigration numbers rather than race, ethnicity or religion.
Sustainable Australia is now using this 2016 federal election platform and momentum to launch state parties in NSW and Victoria for the upcoming state elections, and we expect to secure representation in the Legislative Councils of both states.
We desperately need the mainstream media to participate in a rational and mature debate about the elephant in the room – rapid population growth – that is clearly impacting on Australia’s quality of life.
Again, Sustainable Australia supports immigration, and rejects the selection of migrants based on race, ethnicity or religion. We support a population plebiscite to cap annual permanent immigration at the long term (twentieth century) average of 70,000 per year, down from the current record level of over 200,000 per year. This would have no impact on our refugee intake, which would be maintained. | ENDS
All enquiries:
William Bourke, President, Sustainable Australia
[1] Arts Party analysis of AEC results: http://results.aec.gov.au/17496/Website/SenateResultsMenu-17496.htm
[2] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-19/high-immigration-masks-australian-economic-decline/8193628
[3] https://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news85462.html
[4] http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2017/01/mark-latham-slash-immigration-affordable-housing/