It is easier to plan with a stable population

One option to allow time to improve infrastructure, would be to have a moratorium on high immigration for a few years to allow infrastructure planning and construction to catch up to the levels needed. Proponents of high immigration never suggest reducing immigration to allow infrastructure to catch up, which may indicate that they have goals other than improving the amenity of the community.

It isn’t only infrastructure that needs good planning. Protection of the environment also needs careful planning and adequate spending. Planning for the environment doesn’t get much attention in the current public debate. Public opinion is primarily focused on economic factors. Everybody understands money. It’s much more difficult to understand the environment.

It sounds trivial to say that the economy operates within the environment and therefore we need to protect the environment to protect the economy. Despite this simple truth, there is no urgency to protect the environment.

The most recent State of the Environment Report states:

Of continuing concern for Australia’s immediate future is continued population growth along the coastline. The formation of mega-metropolitan centres with increasing population density on Australia’s coasts has the potential to displace much valuable biodiversity and “high-value” agricultural land.

The Energy in Australia (PDF 1.97MB) part of the State of the Environment Report notes that total and per capita non-renewable energy use will continue to increase every year through 2020, with no downturn indicated.

The National Land and Water Resources Audit estimates that 5.7 million hectares of arable land have a high potential for the development of dryland salinity, and predicts this will rise to 17 million hectares by 2050.

The Sustainable Rivers Audit published in 2008 by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (PDF 4.94MB) found that in the 23 river valleys studied, the ecosystems of 20 of the valleys were in poor (7) or very poor (13) health.

The Australian Agricultural Assessment 2001 notes that:

River sediment loads are generally 10 to 50 times greater than pre-European loads in intensively used river basins.

And

Nearly 19,000 tonnes of total phosphorus and 141,000 tonnes of total nitrogen are predicted to be exported down rivers to the coast each year from areas of intensive agriculture.