248 Immigration and Minority Dominance

Immigration and Minority Dominance

(1) Denis McCormack to Tim Colebatch
(2) Tim Colebatch on Minority Dominance: Chinese cf Jewish
(3) Australia's Jewish Lobby rushed to meet Bill Clinton
(4) Survey says Australians approve immigration despite downturn - Andrew Markus
(5) Andrew Markus holds Pratt Foundation Chair of Jewish Civilisation, at Monash University, Melbourne
(6) Australia needs a big population - Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner to Property Council

(1) Denis McCormack to Tim Colebatch

From: Denis McCormack <wizard_of_aus@hotmail.com> To: tcolebatch@theage.com.au 9 March 2010

You are quoted in my 1999 article about Jews, money, influence and immigration

...but I'm happy for folks to read in today's Age your rather more softly-soaped and generalized p.c. version first Grasshopper:

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/lessons-of-success-from-societies-oppressed-minorities-20100308-psmi.html

Here is an earlier more meat and potato, clear-eyed, local agriculturalist/peasant's plow of the same furrow, with seeds sown as a parting gesture of goodwill to those to whom I was handing over management of 'Australia First' in mid 1999.

http://www.australiafirstparty.com.au/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=51&Itemid=29

If you have any questions or find any fault in it's detail or logic - do let me know, I'm here to help! ...Master Bo

(2) Tim Colebatch on Minority Dominance: Chinese cf Jewish
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/lessons-of-success-from-societies-oppressed-minorities-20100308-psmi.html

Lessons of success from societies' oppressed minorities

Tim Colebatch

The Age, Melbourne, March 9, 2010

Back when Indonesian presidents were dictators, not democrats, Soeharto banned four issues from public discussion: differences of ethnicity, religion, race and class.

In Indonesia, "race" meant the Chinese. A minority of maybe 3 per cent of the population, the Chinese were estimated to control 75 per cent of Indonesian business. Yet they were deprived of full citizenship, banned from speaking Chinese languages, practising Chinese religions or holding public office, had their schools closed and lived in fear for the future.

It was a situation familiar to many European Jews throughout history. They too were a small minority. They came to acquire extraordinary economic power, yet usually they had no civic rights. They were banned from public office and many occupations, and were vulnerable to the hostility of rulers or mobs driven by hate - culminating in Hitler orchestrating the murder of more than 80 per cent of all the Jews in central and eastern Europe.

But how did such a small minority in Europe - and now, in Australia and the United States - acquire such a central role in the economy, the arts and the professions? Like the Indonesians, we see it as an issue best not talked about in public. We saw the appalling outcome of that argument in Europe. So we've treated it as taboo, apart from the nutters on the far right.

But taboos can't last - and now, a real historian has broken this one. Jerry Muller, himself Jewish and a professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington, has published a book of four essays, Capitalism and the Jews, that sets out to explain why Jews have enjoyed such exceptional success in modern capitalist societies such as ours.

Most of the reasons, as he sees it, are the same reasons that the Chinese now dominate commerce in Indonesia and South-East Asia, or the Indians in Fiji, or the Greeks and Armenians in the old Turkish empire. But some are uniquely Jewish.

One problem with the book is that Muller doesn't really start at the beginning, in which the Jewish people over many centuries became primarily a far-flung diaspora while few remained in their old homeland. That meant, by and large, Jews usually lived in towns, whereas the vast majority of people around them were farmers.

With notable exceptions, Jews made their living from commerce and trades, not agriculture. That is crucial to what followed.

Muller begins the story in the high Middle Ages, with the Catholic Church agonising over biblical injunctions against usury: then taken to mean money-lending in general, not the modern meaning of lending at excessive interest rates. The compromise adopted was that Christians should not take part in this evil - but since it was a necessary evil the Jews could do it.

So the role of providing finance - the future engine of capitalist development - was passed to the despised minority of traders and tradesmen.

This, too, is crucial to the story.

Muller is too polite to say it, but his argument clearly implies that the rest of us are disadvantaged because we are descended from a long line of farmers who had their brains dulled by working the land as their parents had done before them. By contrast, Jewish children for centuries grew up in the towns learning to live by their wits, and mastering skills of commerce and finance.

A study of the German corporate elite of 100 years ago found that 32 to 40 per cent of them were Jewish. In Hungary, 54 per cent of commercial establishments were Jewish-owned. It was a similar story throughout Europe and, in a lesser degree, in the United States, Canada and Australia.

Muller sums up his argument in a nutshell: "As the development of modern capitalism created new economic opportunities in Europe and its colonial offshoots, Jews were disproportionately successful in seizing them. That is because the Jews of Europe were well positioned by their premodern history.

"Their experience, and the cultural propensities it engendered, predisposed them towards commerce and finance, and towards the free professions."

The most important cultural propensity was to education. In Prussia in the late 19th century, Muller recounts, Jewish children were 10 times more likely to go to university than other German children.

"By the early 20th century, in the … larger cities of central and eastern Europe, such as Vienna, Warsaw, Prague or Budapest, Jewish lawyers, engineers, pharmacists and architects at times comprised the majority of practitioners, in cities where Jews generally made up 5 to 10 per cent of the population."

A second propensity was a willingness to invest in new ideas. A classic example is the film industry, which quickly became dominated by Jews.

And a third was the propensity for hard work.

These are the same traits that explain the success of the overseas Chinese in Indonesia, and of Chinese students in Australia. If there is a moral here, it is that most of the factors that created Jewish exceptionalism are not exclusive to Jews.

Even those of us whose forebears spent too much time driving ploughs in the rain through wet European soils can make it - if we study hard, take risks and work hard to make them come off.

Tim Colebatch is The Age's economics editor

(3) Australia's Jewish Lobby rushed to meet Bill Clinton

http://www.australiafirstparty.com.au/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=51&Itemid=29

TAXING TIMES AND THE G.S.T.

WHAT IS YOUR PLAN B MR. HOWARD?

By Denis McCormack

1-8-1999

Last month Prime Minister Howard was in the USA touting Sydney as a new financial hub and transaction center for Asia and at the same time encouraging further foreign investment to be 'safe-havened' into Australia which must further enmesh our economy with Asia, but how will these initiatives clash with John Howard's domestic agenda to bring immigration back under control?

Brian Toohey wrote in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) April 6 1995:

"However, as reported by this paper's Washington correspondent, Michael Stutchbury [ex Australian Financial Review editor, D.McC], recent studies have claimed that far larger economic gains are available from removing barriers to migration than from merchandise trade…" In the end however, the case for preventing the free flow of labor in an increasingly borderless world relies on an assertion of national sovereignty in areas that have otherwise been ceded to market forces."

Tim Colebatch wrote in the Melbourne Age July 6 1999:

"And while capital, products and services are increasingly flowing freely across national borders, governments stop the free flow of people. Yet the logic of free trade demands that workers, like firms, should be free to pursue market opportunities by living in whichever country they chose. So far, the free marketeers have stopped short of advocating for people the freedom they demand for products. But it will happen."

The free-marketeers par excellence, the Wall Street Journal, has a stated editorial policy -

"Let there be open borders",

 and has had that view for some years.

The real question is, whilst Prime Minister Howard seeks to encourage further internationalization/foreign investment which will naturally lead to greater profit repatriation off-shore and hence exacerbate already chronic balance of payments / net foreign liabilities problems under the current lax tax arrangements and agreements for multinationals - can he head off the big end of towns often stated big immigration agenda and continue to stand against their ultimate deregulatory logic (as quoted above) which favors the free flow of people to flood in with capital and trade?

TAXING TIMES

Is there a link between the G.S.T. implementation and further internationalization of Australia's economy, and why was the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.) so keen for us to have a G.S.T. - what's in it for them? Why has the I.M.F. been promoting G.S.T./V.A.T. all over the world for decades? Tom Dusevic in the Australian Financial Review, November 11, 1991, 'I.M.F. Lends Weight to the G.S.T. Concept' wrote that the I.M.F.:

"produced a "how-to" book for the opposition Leader Dr. Hewson and shadow treasurer Peter Reith, explaining how to sell the G.S.T. to the public, placate noisy lobby groups, deflect the political blow-torch (from within their own party and the ALP) and get the new system up and running… The I.M.F. study also notes the relatively short parliamentary term in Australia… The report, Value Added Tax: Administrative and Policy Issues was edited by Mr. Alan Tait of I.M.F. fiscal affairs division… But the ALP can take some heart. The V.A.T. does have some faults. It said, "Of course, because something is popular, especially a tax, does not mean it should be part of everyone's wardrobe. The V.A.T also appears more complicated to administer than other sales taxes and substantial refunds can be involved: collecting V.A.T. and paying refunds simply means spinning wheels for no revenue and this is clearly inefficient."


So after Dr. Hewson lost the unlosable election in 1993 due to the unpopular G.S.T. (which one wouldn't have thought he'd need any further instruction on from the I.M.F given his past professional career path as an economist with the I.M.F., Australia's Reserve Bank, Treasury Department, Executive Director of Macquarie Bank, etc.) - who resurrected the G.S.T. and when?

It wasn’t the new Prime Minister John Howard. As far as he was concerned, the G.S.T. was dead and buried deep in the "never-ever" file. On September 7 1996 Michael Gawenda, a Jewish journalist with clout who has since became editor of the Melbourne Age, wrote a big article on Graeme Samuel titled 'Mover and Shaker':

 "…..Graeme Samuel seemingly has a finger in every pie… until 1986…executive director of Macquarie Bank…. before he was for 12 years a partner of law firm Phillips, Fox and Masel….. Commissioner of the AFL, chairman of the Australian Opera, Chairman of the Inner and Eastern Health Care Network, Councillor of National Competition Council, Chairman of the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust, Trustee of the Melbourne Cricket Ground Trust, President of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Co-Chairman of the Jewish Communal Planning and Development Board, etc."

According to Gawenda, Samuel's father was:

"A Flinders Lane Rag Trader," and Samuel "is a shy and sensitive sort of guy…. consummate networker, has influence over a bewildering number of areas, more than any other individual in town. More than Lloyd Williams, more even than Ron Walker…. horrified at the suggestion that he is powerful….'Don’t ever write that'…'I want to be useful that’s all'…Samuel is helping to shape some of the key cultural institutions in our community, and he is an important player in the political arena, at both State and Federal levels….'the market should rule….the more deregulation and privatization we have, the better off we will all be'…..Active in the Liberal Party since his student days… State Liberal Party Treasurer for three years…speaks to the Premier probably once a week…. His big campaign at the moment is for tax reform, specifically for the introduction of a G.S.T., a move he admits isn't possible during this term of the Howard Government. But Mr. Samuel is determined to get a G.S.T. up during the next term of the Howard Government. 'Tax reform is essential…G.S.T. is inevitable. My job is to educate people about this.'"

Even earlier than the above quoted September 96 article, Mr. Samuel was interviewed on Ten TV network's 'Meet the Press' on April 7 1996 and written up in the Age 'Business Lobbies Howard for G.S.T.' by Karen Middleton April 8 1996, i.e. just weeks after Howard's first March 1996 win!

"…. the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry President, Mr. Graeme Samuel…..said business leaders would continue to lobby the Government to introduce a G.S.T. despite the Liberals abandoning the plan after political disaster in 1993. 'The ACCI was a major sponsor of the G.S.T.; it remains a major sponsor of the G.S.T.' Mr. Samuel said. 'It would be saying to the Government continuously, 'when the time is right, when you can do it, that’s got to be the way to go'… he said it had to remain on the agenda for beyond the Government's first term. A spokesman for Prime Minister Mr. Howard rejected any suggestion that a G.S.T. would or should be introduced. Mr. Samuel…defended big business against claims that some corporations were not paying their fair share of tax."

Again in the Age October 4 1997, 'Top of the Heap' by Malcolm Maiden we see another reiteration of Mr. Samuel's many and powerful connections:

"The man is everywhere… 'I like to think that I have influence, but the power resides with the elected officials who appoint me - Treasurers, Premiers, Ministers…' Mr. Samuel is directing an extraordinary number of enterprises, the great majority of which have a government connection. He is certainly one of the most important links between the Victorian Government and business, and his influence on the Federal sphere is rising…. He is president of the National Competition Council…He opposes industry protection and regulation…. He said a few years ago… Insider trading actually improved the efficiency of the market because it made prices adjust to events more quickly… In 1980 he was head hunted to Macquarie Bank by another mentor, Tony Berg, who went on to head the bank before becoming the managing director of Boral."

Berg is also Jewish and heads the Business Council of Australia's internal task force aimed at promoting increased immigration - as does the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Towards the end of Malcolm Maiden's article he quotes Samuel as saying:

"If you work outside the political spectrum you have got a lot more freedom to be a change agent… you are accountable but in a different way, in a very personal way, to those who ultimately are running the Country or running the State."

Much has been written about the Clinton administration being top heavy with Jewish appointments. According to the Australia Israel Review's December 1 to December 31 1996 report on Bill Clinton's visit to Australia:

" The recent visit of U.S. President Clinton saw a heavy hitting collection of Jewish Community identities invited to meet and greet the world leader. Invited to the Canberra joint parliamentary session address were Solomon Lew, Joe Gutnick, Rodney Adler, Richard Pratt, Peter Ivany, Graeme Samuel, Saul Same, and ALP Melbourne Ports heir apparent Michael Danby. Frank Lowy later joined Clinton and Prime Minister Howard on an evening Sydney Harbour Cruise. The next day in Sydney, at Macquarie's Chair, Clinton met with Henry and Miriam Greenfield, Isi and Mary Herzog, property developers Michael and Miriam Lasky, Australia-Israel Review Editorial Chairman Colin Rubenstein and wife Jan, Liberty and Solo petrol men David Wieland and David Goldberger with their wives Marilyn and Geinia, AWU union bosses Bob Smith and Steve Harrison and Hyatt owner Ted Lustig… They all later adjourned to a reception that N.S.W. Premier Bob Carr had turned on …"

Bob Carr used to be the Labor Friends of Israel N.S.W. convenor.

The Australian August 3/4,1996, revealed in a story by Richard Gluyas that Jewish:

"Billionaire Richard Pratt maintains a multimillion dollar network of political, business and security advisors including two former Prime Ministers, ex-premiers of both N.S.W and Victoria and a former Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police…"

The article went on to name Bob Hawke, Gough Whitlam, Nick Greiner, Rupert Hamer and Mick Miller. Pratt supports increased immigration. (See 'Why a Bigger Australia Will be Better' by Richard Pratt, The Age, January 12, 1996)

In the Age July 21, 1993, 'Former NP Leader Backs Fischer over Israel' Martin Daly wrote:

"The former Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Doug Anthony suggested that the 'powerful' Jewish lobby was 'twisting somebody's tail' to isolate the National Party leader, Mr. Fischer over his remarks about Israel. Mr. Anthony, a former National Party Leader, defended Mr. Fischer's claim that the Australian Government policy appeared to be biased in favour of Israel… Mr. Fischer is reported to have said that Israel's belligerent attitude to its Muslim neighbors was an obstacle to Australian trade and to peace…Mr. Anthony said… the reaction from the pro-Israel lobby in Australia was 'pretty normal'. 'They have to fight very hard to protect their interests and they do it very effectively world-wide.' But 'Tim Fischer has a point of view that must be recognized, and it is not'…Mr. Anthony said Dr. Hewson and Mr. Andrew Peacock were overreacting in their responses to Mr. Fischer. 'They might be playing to a certain lobby,' he said ."

Paul Daly in 'Howard Rebuke for Fischer over Israel' Sunday Age, April 30, 1995 wrote:

"The Federal Opposition Leader Mr. John Howard has publicly distanced himself from comments by the National Party Leader, Mr. Tim Fischer, that offended the Jewish community. Mr. Fischer had likened Israel's actions in Lebanon to those of Nazi Germany and said Israel's secret service, Mossad, might have stolen the trousers of a former Australian Prime Minister in the United States. Mr. Howard recently told an audience of 750 at an Australian - Israel Chamber of Commerce meeting in Melbourne that he could understand why Mr. Fischer's comments had upset so many Australian Jews. Mr. Howard's comments have coincided with heavy criticism from Australia's Jewish community about the coalition's opposition to the Federal Governments proposed Racial Hatred Laws…They were also pitched at Australia's most prominent business and Jewish community leaders - including representatives from the ANZ Bank, the Commonwealth Bank and Citibank, Arthur Anderson and Co., BMW and Pratt industries - who are among potential donors to the Liberal Party during election campaigns."

Mr. Howard is well known to be "a staunch supporter of Israel" which is also recorded in the remainder of the above article. Howard is very careful with words however, and his above quoted comments that he "could understand" why Fischer's comments caused a row were as carefully crafted as similar comments he made when just prior to regaining the Liberal Party leadership, he let the Asian community know that he "could understand" their dismay at his 1988 Asian immigration remarks. That both these Howard commentaries were widely interpreted as apologies is a hallmark of Howard's political sophistication - or sophistry - depending on ones assessment of his position today.

It took four years to tidy up this little tiff, as the Australian's chief political commentator, Dennis Shanahan reported April 5/6, 1997, in 'Fischer now Kosher with Jewish Lobby':

"On his return from the Middle East, Deputy Prime Minister and National Party Leader Tim Fischer finally arrived at a private peace after a four year war of attrition. Fischer's new peace is with the Australian Jewish-Israeli lobby and has little to do with a truce in Jerusalem but has ramifications for the Coalition Government, the outcome of the next election and the survival of the National Party Leader himself… Some Liberal seats could stand or fall on the Jewish vote and the power of Jewish financial contributions to Liberal coffers has a legendary and almost mythical impact on the Liberal (and Labor) psyche."

The article goes on to elaborate how,

"The rapprochement between Fischer and the influential and indefatigable Jewish lobby"

was brought about - or how Tim was brought to heel.

According to Prime Minister Howard's media release, when lighting a candle at the Jewish Chanukah festival (December 23, 1997), he said in his speech:

 "…the security and the invincibility of the State of Israel behind secure, defensible boundaries, is a corner stone of Australian foreign policy…"

Is that so? At what cost, and why?

Renown Jewish scholar/academic, Dr. Bill Rubinstein, ex of Melbourne's Deakin University Sociology Department tells us in his book 'The Left, The Right, and the Jews' (Croom & Helm, 1982):

"….the Jews of the western world today constitute an elite which is represented strongly among wealth - holders and top business leaders and academics as well as in the top posts of communications and the media. Since 1945, the whole of western Jewry has virtually moved into the upper middle class…This has occurred at a time when the conservative establishment throughout the western world is largely pro Israel and philo-semitic….The definition of 'elite' is extremely complex and, moreover varies from society to society….the term 'elite' is used in its commonsense definition to mean the small minority of individuals who wield disproportionate influence or decision making power in a society. This power may flow from many and varied causes - the holding of political office, wealth or economic influence, status, charisma, the successful mobilisation of organised opinion or interest."

As Tim Colebatch said in the Age November 2, 1996:

"By and large, it is taboo to make hostile comments about any ethnic group or to criticize other religions. The class struggle is open to all, but it would be as impossible to debate the pre-eminent role of Jewish Australian's in business as to debate the role of the Chinese in Jakarta."

The fact that I not only debate "the pre-eminent role of Jewish Australians in business," but also document and demonstrate its existence and consequences in occasional writings such as this article has long earned for me the ire of the Jewish lobby. Bernard Freedman writing for the Australian Jewish News September 26, 1997, said:

"Independent (former Labor) M.P. Graeme Campbell has a new staff member. He's none other than Denis McCormack, [I've been working with Graeme since 1991! D.McC.] a founder member of Australians Against Further Immigration…Certainly, Mr. McCormack has an apprehensive awareness of what he once described as 'the influence various members of the Jewish community and its leadership are able to exert in all areas of Australian life'. Nevertheless Mr. Campbell maintains he is not anti-Semitic. He says he employs him because he is a very good researcher."

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'Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years' By Prof. Israel Shahak. (Pluto Press, 1994)

'The Culture of Critique': An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political movements by Dr. Kevin MacDonald. (Praeger Publishers 1998, 379 pages hardback)

MacDonald is professor of psychology, California State University, Long Beach, USA. His previous two books in the trilogy were:
'A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy' (Praeger, 1994) and 'Separation and its Discontents: Towards an Evolutionary Theory of anti-Semitism.' (Praeger, 1998)

All are heavy going for beginners - but worthwhile.

(4) Survey says Australians approve immigration despite downturn - Andrew Markus

There has been a fundamental change in attitude to immigration

Andrew Trounson  The Australian  December 01, 2009 12:00AM 

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/there-has-been-a-fundamental-change-in-attitude-to-immigration/story-e6frgczf-1225805509430

POSITIVE attitudes to immigration are weathering the economic downturn, suggesting there has been a fundamental shift away from viewing migrants as scapegoats for societal problems.

The Mapping Social Cohesion Survey of 3500 people, to be released today, shows that only 37 per cent of Australians believe the migrant intake is too high, virtually unchanged from when the economy was booming in 2007.

It is also well down from the 60-70 per cent range during the recession-hit early 1990s and the height of Hansonism in 1996-98.

But the survey underscored the potential for ethnic tensions to flare in some poor areas, finding that nearly 70 per cent of long-time Australians living in areas with large numbers of immigrants believed too many were coming into the country.

These areas also tended to be economically disadvantaged, suggesting they could become trouble spots if the economy worsened and unemployment jumped significantly.

Report author Andrew Markus of Monash University said: "The potential is that if the economy goes sour and we again find ourselves in a situation of 10-15 per cent unemployment, we may have a different outcome (to the positive survey results) in areas of high immigrant concentration."

Professor Markus said he was surprised that attitudes about migrants had not been hardened by the economic downturn. When Australia was last in recession, in 1991, anti-immigration sentiment was measured at a 30-year high.

In the latest survey, 68 per cent of respondents agreed that immigration made the country stronger, while only 9 per cent had strongly negative views on immigration and diversity.

Business tycoon Peter Scanlon, whose Scanlon Foundation funds the survey, said the positive views on immigration suggested there had been a fundamental shift in attitudes.

He said migrants were no longer seen as "scapegoats" for problems but as key to helping offset Australia's ageing population. "There is an enormous maturity that has grown since the 1980s about understanding the role that diversity plays, and that it is part of Australia," Mr Scanlon said.

Professor Markus said the data highlighted the need to address public safety and crime in poorer areas with large immigrant populations.

(5) Andrew Markus holds Pratt Foundation Chair of Jewish Civilisation, at Monash University, Melbourne

Andrew Markus - School of Historical Studies Staff, Arts, Monash ...
14 Nov 2007

http://arts.monash.edu.au/historical-studies/staff/amarkus.php

Andrew Markus holds the Pratt Foundation Chair of Jewish Civilisation. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and is a past Head of Monash University's School of Historical Studies . He has published extensively in the field of Australian race relations.

(6) Australia needs a big population - Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner to Property Council

Population fear is nonsense: Tanner

ARI SHARP

November 13, 2009

http://www.theage.com.au/national/population-fear-is-nonsense-tanner-20091112-icf1.html

AUSTRALIA has the potential for substantial population growth and claims the country has exceeded its capacity are ''nonsense'', according to senior minister Lindsay Tanner.

In a speech that is sharply at odds with calls from environmentalists for tight population limits, Mr Tanner will today lay out the case for Australian cities to absorb a surging population.

''The argument that Australia is already overpopulated is nonsense,'' the Finance Minister will say in a speech to the Property Council of Australia in Melbourne.

His remarks point to friction within the Government on population issues, coming just two days after Labor backbencher Kelvin Thomson spoke in favour of reducing Australia's annual immigration program to 70,000 in an effort to contain the country's ''runaway population''.

Mr Thomson suggested abolishing the baby bonus, restricting family benefits for third and subsequent children, cutting the intake of skilled migrants and making overseas students return home for two years before able to apply for residency here - while increasing the refugee program from 13,750 to 20,000 a year, including a new category, climate refugees.

Figures cited by Mr Tanner show Melbourne has a population density of 487 people per square kilometre, well behind many major European cities, such as Dublin, which is home to 1273 people per square kilometre.

''Bangladesh is roughly twice the size of Tasmania, and home to about seven times the population of Australia. If Australia seeks to persuade the rest of the world that we are overpopulated, we will be rightly laughed at,'' Mr Tanner will say, according to a copy of his speech supplied to The Age.

In the next few months the Government is due to release the latest intergenerational report, which according to previous figures will project Australia's population to grow by 65 per cent over the next 40 years, reaching more than 35 million people by 2049, up from about 21? million today.

Mr Tanner argues cities such as Melbourne and Sydney, which are projected to reach populations of 7 million each in the next four decades, need to improve their planning to cope with the population influx.

''For most of the last century we treated natural resources like land, water and forests as if they were infinite. We're now paying the price.''

He cites major infrastructure projects, from a $3 billion commitment to regional rail in Victoria to the $43 billion national broadband network, as the sorts of projects needed to absorb a growing population.

One major barrier to a higher Australian population is the availability of water, but Mr Tanner was confident it could be overcome through desalination, water recycling and storm water harvesting projects.