Minister for Population’s three points to address problems with Australia’s booming cities

The Federal Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population has told 3AW he sees three key areas that must be improved as Australia’s population continues to boom.

MP Alan Tudge told Neil Mitchell while he does not have an exact figure for Australia’s ideal population, he believes distribution must be looked at going forward.

“I think we need to decide what is the ideal growth we can have in every region,” Mr Tudge said.

“Take a place like Melbourne, which has been growing very, very fast and a place like Adelaide which has had very, very slow growth.

“Adelaide last year grew by 10,000 people, whereas Melbourne grew by 10,000 people every 25 days.

“We have a distribution issue.

“Adelaide, the Northern Territory, parts of regional Victoria want more people.

“That is the central problem in relation to migration.”

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The Minister said a big part of his job will be addressing the three following areas;

• Investment in infrastructure
• Decentralisation plan
• Population assessment

“A third of the population in Melbourne is through immigration, and if you continue at that rate indefinitely of course you change the fabric of the country,” Neil Mitchell said.

“You can argue that’s good or bad, but it’s inevitable.”