Prime Minister Kevin Rudd went on the ABC's 7:30 Report last week and talked up population growth, saying he 'believe[s] in a big Australia'.
He was responding to predictions from Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, who told a Brisbane business forum that Australia's population is likely to rise to more than 35 million by 2050.
Rudd said: 'It's good news that our population is growing. Contrast that with many countries in Europe where in fact it's heading in the reverse direction.'
But Rudd's 'big' assertion looks vacuous alongside Henry's statement the same day of his pessimism about the ability for Australia's natural environment to sustain such population growth.
He said: 'Our record has been poor and in my view we are not well placed to deal effectively with the environmental challenges of a population of 35 million.'
Henry stressed that the way we deal with climate change will have 'profound implications for the pattern of human settlement' and could produce the largest structural adjustment in economic history.
For example, in his review of the taxation system, Ken Henry is arguing that our system of paying for our roads needs to be reconfigured to account for population growth and environmental sustainability. This points to punishing congestion taxes that would cause drivers to reconsider their need to use busy suburban and inner city routes. Among the many other aspects of our lifestyle that will need careful evaluation, he listed pet ownership.
From these two examples alone, it's clear that the major challenge will be political. Leaders must persuade Australians to accept that they are obliged to make serious sacrifices so that future generations may simply live.
Already we are off to a lamentable start, with the inability of politicians from either side to enact meaningful legislation to curb carbon emissions because it would be detrimental to our current prosperity. Such an attitude amounts to destroying the lifestyles of future generations in order to preserve our own.
A recent Lowy Institute survey showed that Australians are feeling less inclined to even talk about climate change than they were previously. In 2006, 68 per cent thought the nation should take steps to tackle climate change even if it involved significant costs. But the figure fell to 48 per cent in the 2009 survey.
However there is a precedent that suggests Ken Henry's pessimism may not be entirely justified. One of the reasons that Australia appears to have suffered less from the global