NATS LEADER RAISES POPULATION CONCERNS
July 21, 2010
Leader of The Nationals Warren Truss says the issue of sustainable population growth has been placed in the too hard basket for too long.
Speaking at Bairnsdale Rotary Club on Tuesday night, Mr Truss said the issue would require a fully informed national debate, regardless of which party won the August 21 Federal election.
Mr Truss was joined at the meeting by Federal Member for Gippsland Darren Chester and discussed a wide range of non-party political issues.
“It was a good chance for local Rotarians to talk about some of the big issues facing our nation,” Mr Chester said.
“Politics often gets bogged down in parochial party matters but the discussion we had with the Rotarians was more about taking a balanced approach to population growth and understanding the complexity of the issue.
“When we have cities bursting at the seams and many rural communities crying out for more residents, there’s obviously some opportunities to redistribute our population.
“But at the same time, it is very difficult to forcibly restrict population growth or require people to more to one part of the country, compared to another within our nation.
“We also raised the issue of Australia’s immigration rate and steps that can be taken to ensuring that the people who move to Australia, have the skills and capacity to make a contribution to our community.
“It was a very interesting debate and it was great to have the Federal Leader of The Nationals in town to support my election campaign.”
