[Applause]
when I was in grade eight I suffocated
well almost suffocated that is my
experience would have probably been
fatal if there were any more people on
the state higher overpass between
periods one and two now that I’m in year
11 and super big it obviously won’t
happen to me anymore well we can look at
my story of nearly suffocating on the
bridge connecting up and lower campus as
a preview of how crowded our roads our
schools and our cities may look like
constantly in the future this may come
as somewhat of a shocker because views
on Australia’s population are strikingly
divided a lot of people think we have an
immense amount of underutilized and
unoccupied land and not enough people
and conversely some people take one look
at peak hour traffic and think we have
way too many people in our country New
Zealand’s looking more and more
favorable by the day but most concerning
even more so than people crossing the
ditch to join the Kiwis is that a lot of
people don’t actually have an opinion in
our great population debate and couldn’t
care less I’m hoping that by the end of
my speech you do care because the fact
is Australia’s population growth rate
1.6 percent is almost double that of
socioeconomically similar nations and
this isn’t because all of our mums and
dads are continuing to have five
children in fact in the year that I was
born in the year before I was born
2001 Australia so the lowest number of
babies being born per parent in the
history of our nation it was so bad that
the government told parents to have one
baby for mum one baby for Dad and one
baby for the country so why is our
population still continued to soar it’s
simple every 61 seconds one person
immigrates to our country will hit 30
million when were in our 20s and 40
million when were in our 50s and more
than half our population will live in
Sydney and Melbourne alone
so what does this mean for us the
generation that’s growing up with this
population increase let me introduce you
to Charlie Charlie’s in grade 11 loves a
bit of footy sleeping and eating it’s
really good at Matt’s but no one notices
it and here’s a question ago that
probably doesn’t know he exists Charlie
just wants to get through high school
and uni marry the girl of his dreams
living a big Queen Center like the one
he grew up in with a big backyard a pool
have a couple of kids and this cute
golden retriever Charlie wants the
Australian dream
but if our population keeps growing the
way it’s been growing there’s a big
chance Charlie won’t get to live his
dream instead it’s much more likely
there he’ll be faced with house prices
with way too many zeros and be stuck in
peak hour traffic way more than anyone
wants to because the fact is Australian
house prices have increased more than 50
percent in the last five years and
traffic has increased by 28 percent can
we really let this happen but to what
extent are we willing to sacrifice our
migrants to give Charlie his dream
because Charlie’s friend Sophie also
wants the Australian Dream Sophie
migrated to Australia when she was a
toddler and she’s been an Aussie ever
since so if he plays such an important
role in supporting Australia’s other
citizens considering that by 2050 one in
four people will be over 65 in leading
the pension we need migrants likes like
Sophie to support our aging population
migrant spring skills that we otherwise
wouldn’t have if we cut migration now
it’ll cost the budget five billion in
revenue because of less numbers of
skilled workers and lower economic
growth and Sophie was will be stripped
of her Australian dream so we’ve got to
ask ourselves is it really so bad
keeping our population rate as it is so
if Charlie gets what he wants
does this mean Sophie’s dream is
compromised can we control our
population without compromising our eken
stability and can we realistically
create a society where all the Charlie’s
and the Sophie’s both get what they want
maybe sometime in the future we can
because when taking a look at other
cities with huge populations like London
New York and Tokyo we can see they still
provide most of our citizens with
quality lifestyles Australia needs a
plan if we’re to flourish in the future
we need equitable education affordable
health care food and climate security
and the list goes on the reason why
Australia hasn’t developed this plan
isn’t because we’re unaware of the issue
it’s because the conversation
surrounding immigration has turned
negative very quickly and it’s term more
so into an us or them debate someday
it’ll be up to our generation to provide
these things for Australia we may be
able to push for migrants to start
living in rural areas or start getting
Aussies used to the idea of living in
apartments in the city so whether your
ideal population is big or small
remember to consider but Charlie and
Sophie’s experiences when making your decision to shape our future
when I was in grade eight I suffocated
well almost suffocated that is my
experience would have probably been
fatal if there were any more people on
the state higher overpass between
periods one and two now that I’m in year
11 and super big it obviously won’t
happen to me anymore well we can look at
my story of nearly suffocating on the
bridge connecting up and lower campus as
a preview of how crowded our roads our
schools and our cities may look like
constantly in the future this may come
as somewhat of a shocker because views
on Australia’s population are strikingly
divided a lot of people think we have an
immense amount of underutilized and
unoccupied land and not enough people
and conversely some people take one look
at peak hour traffic and think we have
way too many people in our country New
Zealand’s looking more and more
favorable by the day but most concerning
even more so than people crossing the
ditch to join the Kiwis is that a lot of
people don’t actually have an opinion in
our great population debate and couldn’t
care less I’m hoping that by the end of
my speech you do care because the fact
is Australia’s population growth rate
1.6 percent is almost double that of
socioeconomically similar nations and
this isn’t because all of our mums and
dads are continuing to have five
children in fact in the year that I was
born in the year before I was born
2001 Australia so the lowest number of
babies being born per parent in the
history of our nation it was so bad that
the government told parents to have one
baby for mum one baby for Dad and one
baby for the country so why is our
population still continued to soar it’s
simple every 61 seconds one person
immigrates to our country will hit 30
million when were in our 20s and 40
million when were in our 50s and more
than half our population will live in
Sydney and Melbourne alone
so what does this mean for us the
generation that’s growing up with this
population increase let me introduce you
to Charlie Charlie’s in grade 11 loves a
bit of footy sleeping and eating it’s
really good at Matt’s but no one notices
it and here’s a question ago that
probably doesn’t know he exists Charlie
just wants to get through high school
and uni marry the girl of his dreams
living a big Queen Center like the one
he grew up in with a big backyard a pool
have a couple of kids and this cute
golden retriever Charlie wants the
Australian dream
but if our population keeps growing the
way it’s been growing there’s a big
chance Charlie won’t get to live his
dream instead it’s much more likely
there he’ll be faced with house prices
with way too many zeros and be stuck in
peak hour traffic way more than anyone
wants to because the fact is Australian
house prices have increased more than 50
percent in the last five years and
traffic has increased by 28 percent can
we really let this happen but to what
extent are we willing to sacrifice our
migrants to give Charlie his dream
because Charlie’s friend Sophie also
wants the Australian Dream Sophie
migrated to Australia when she was a
toddler and she’s been an Aussie ever
since so if he plays such an important
role in supporting Australia’s other
citizens considering that by 2050 one in
four people will be over 65 in leading
the pension we need migrants likes like
Sophie to support our aging population
migrant spring skills that we otherwise
wouldn’t have if we cut migration now
it’ll cost the budget five billion in
revenue because of less numbers of
skilled workers and lower economic
growth and Sophie was will be stripped
of her Australian dream so we’ve got to
ask ourselves is it really so bad
keeping our population rate as it is so
if Charlie gets what he wants
does this mean Sophie’s dream is
compromised can we control our
population without compromising our eken
stability and can we realistically
create a society where all the Charlie’s
and the Sophie’s both get what they want
maybe sometime in the future we can
because when taking a look at other
cities with huge populations like London
New York and Tokyo we can see they still
provide most of our citizens with
quality lifestyles Australia needs a
plan if we’re to flourish in the future
we need equitable education affordable
health care food and climate security
and the list goes on the reason why
Australia hasn’t developed this plan
isn’t because we’re unaware of the issue
it’s because the conversation
surrounding immigration has turned
negative very quickly and it’s term more
so into an us or them debate someday
it’ll be up to our generation to provide
these things for Australia we may be
able to push for migrants to start
living in rural areas or start getting
Aussies used to the idea of living in
apartments in the city so whether your
ideal population is big or small
remember to consider but Charlie and
Sophie’s experiences when making your decision to shape our future
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