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Mixed views on WA population increase

A CALL for Western Australia to increase its population radically to 100 million - 50 times the current level - has been dismissed as absolute lunacy and out of touch with reality.

Prominent millionaire businessman Jack Bendat said there was no reason Western Australia could not sustain that number of people - the same as was thriving in the similar-sized land mass of California, Texas, Oregon and Washington.

Austal Ships chairman John Rothwell, Azure Capital's John Poynton and building magnate Len Buckeridge also argued that increased immigration could help overcome the skills shortage which was stifling the economy and causing blowouts in the cost of big resources and infrastructure projects.

But Dr Harry Cohen, Western Australian president of Sustainable Population Australia, said Mr Bendat's call showed a growth-at-all-costs mentality which was shortsighted.

Dr Cohen said scientists working in the field now believed Australia could support between 20 and 25 million people, although some thought that figure was too high.

Many people argued that Western Australia's current population of two million already was too high.

Solving the skills shortage would be better served by redressing cuts in training which had taken place in the past, and implementing better forward planning to address workforce needs in the future.

"I can think of no measure of human satisfaction or happiness which is made better by more people," Dr Cohen said.

Dr Abu Siddique, director of the Trade, Commerce, Migration and Development Research Centre at University of Western Australia, said a slight increase in immigration to about 150,000 people per year probably would serve Australia's interests.

But the figure always should be linked to prevailing economic conditions because the nation historically went through boom and bust economic cycles.

Australian Bureau of Statistics research showed that to increase the nation's population to 50 million by 2051, Australia would have to bring in 490,000 migrants each year - five times the current level.

To reach the same figure without increasing immigration would require the fertility rate to increase from about 1.7 children per woman to about 3.9.

Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia chief economist Nicky Cusworth said the CCI advocated a modest increase in immigration levels.

Western Australia could use more people at the moment because of the skills shortage, she said.

"The case for an above-average level of migration at the moment is quite strong," she said.

But it was academic to argue about whether the nation's population radically should be reduced or increased because the social consequences of such a big change would not be tolerated by the community, she said.