The Australian population needs to be kept below 30 million according to Sustainable Population Australia’s President, Peter Strachan, who believes that the country is overpopulated and has breached its ecological limits.

Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) has called for sensible public policy that takes heed of the driest continent’s ecological growth limits, as demonstrated by a record of steady environmental decline over the past century. The SPA insists that Australia’s population must remain below 30 million in order to limit further environmental degradation.

SPA President, Peter Strachan says: “The impact of a rapidly expanding population continues to significantly degrade Australia’s biophysical environment. The evidence is clear from six official State of the Environment reports since 1996.”

Australia’s population has more than doubled over the past 50 years, to almost 27 million, growing by nearly 8 million since the year 2000 alone.

Strachan asked: “What possible benefit can accrue to our natural environment, while growing population pressure on the nation continues along an uncontrolled, mindless path? How can Australians remain resilient in the face of threats posed by climate change and how will quality of life be sustained as our environment is further degraded?”

SPA President went on to say: “Adding more people will leave our nation more vulnerable to the impacts of a hotter, drier and more extreme climate in southern Australia, including prolonged droughts when crops will fail. How will this situation be improved by continuing population expansion that may drive Treasury’s raw GDP growth, but no longer delivers meaningful improvements in our quality of life?”

In the world’s driest continent, water supplies for urban areas need to be backed up by energy-hungry desalination plants during dry periods, a resource that the rapidly expanding city of Perth (to name one) could not survive without.

Across Australia, population-driven urban infill and expansion is coming at a heavy price, specifically loss of agricultural land, deforestation, and loss of native plant and animal habitat. At the same time, declining precipitation due to climate change, as well as soil acidification, rising salt, and erosion, is threatening agricultural productivity and increasing the risk of bushfires.

“Regeneration of our damaged ecosystems cannot succeed if we continue to inflict more damage with more population growth,” Strachan insists, adding: “Degradation of the natural environment also has social and economic impacts. Consequently, real household incomes are in decline, 3.7 million Australian households are food insecure in what is nominally one of the wealthiest nations on Earth, while demand from rapid population growth has pushed housing costs beyond a price that most can afford.”

Peter Strachan believes that Australia’s finite supply of minerals and energy must be marshalled for the long term and that it is over-reliant on vital imports of fertiliser, liquid petroleum products and other essential raw materials, leaving the nation vulnerable to external events in a deglobalising world.

Sustainable Population Australia is urging its government to lift its gaze and set policy that can offer some hope of averting the environmental disaster that many believe lies ahead.

Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) has recently launched its ‘Say NO to a Big Australia!’ campaign. The campaign, which has already gathered more than 15,000 signatures, calls for a stabilised Australian population, maintained within ecological limits.