Why facts (voters) can’t get a look-in against ‘Huge Australia’ groupthink

Electors and environment have never been worse served by Huge Australia. Yet it's all-powerful. This poses historic challenges for voter-friendly voices. Evidence bounces off the stakeholder mafia.

As an experiment, I skimmed the "cream" from the summit list. Then added in essential stakeholders, particularly federal agencies, and mainstream media.

This yielded eight stakeholder groups and 100-plus agencies/individuals including 40 Summiteers. It was hard to find a dozen notable agencies challenging the Huge Australia narrative. None attended the summit. The groupthink is less stifling in the US and certain EU nations where low-migration parties can turn or win elections.

Despite five major blocs in our federal politics - Liberal, Labor, National, Greens, Teal – voters have no low-migration option. The time-stained Liberal-Labor duopoly locks them out.

Federal Agencies are notable propagandists for Huge Australia. In Treasury portfolio, Home Affairs/Environment, ABC/SBS, ANU/CSIRO.

Treasury, Reserve Bank, Productivity Commission mandarins enjoy lush salaries, for un-seeing the massive migration. Treasurer's fatwa denies Huge Australia is any drag on productivity.

The federal budget absorbs GDP benefits of migration, while states and cities absorb costs. Yet states adore their Huge Australia debts – Victoria almost unto bankruptcy.

States are reliant on Commonwealth grants, also captured by industry and developers who dominated the summit. More population = bigger business + flatter wages.

In their spare time, corporates like Atlassian and Fortescue "save the planet". No mention of population.

Economists, urban planners, and demographers are well-paid soothsayers of Huge Australia. "Better planning" is their default prescription.

A couple of (actually) independent economists query endless population growth.

While guru Ross Garnaut bemoans Australia's "lost decade" for productivity and wages. Never mind the mega migration, we can leapfrog to being an "energy superpower" with "zero carbon" exports. Music to the treasurer's ears.