On Dick Smith and immigration
John Burke writes: Re. “Dick Smith versus the migrants” (Wednesday)
In ignoring Dick Smith’s overall approach to the population issue, Bernard Keane does no one a favour.
Sure migrants have built this country, sure we are all migrants or their close descendants, sure One Nation is a redneck abomination and sure more houses could be built if there were the will. Having said all that, it’s disappointing to see Keane lining up with the growth-without-limit merchants; those people whose well funded lobbyists haunt the corridors of our parliaments: the rent seekers, the unthinking and the greedy.
As Dick has said often enough, we cannot have infinite growth in a finite world, or in Australia in this case. Our recent rates of population growth will see us with about 100 million people in another 100 years and with 200 million 50 years later and onwards exponentially. Now as we have grown from the Aboriginal population to almost 25 million over some 220 years we have wreaked huge environmental damage on our country. Think the Murray-Darling, think a huge mammal extinction rate and so on. Think of the devastation should we pursue growth at our current rates!
Plenty of European countries, as well as others like Japan, seem to manage well economically with zero or negative population growth, with wealth per capita being the relevant measure rather than GDP. As for Bernard blaming nimbyism for traffic and such issues, that’s just silly. If you don’t look after your own backyard then who will? The countless planning mistakes that continue to be made in the face of community opposition are testament to the necessity for ongoing nimby activity.
The interesting thing is that we don’t seem to be allowed to discuss the future of our population. Keane doesn’t want to, our political and business leaders don’t want to, out major environmental groups refuse to and so it’s left to a few people like Dick Smith to carry that flag. If we were to agree that population growth should stop one day then it behoves us to talk about by what process that will occur. Shall we, being rational beings, manage our own destiny or shall we let the rent seekers keep pushing until Australia is on its knees, environmentally, socially and economically. As David Attenborough has said, “There seems to be some bizarre taboo around the subject”.
Dick Smith cares about Australia and its future. He needs support and understanding rather than the sort of facile rebuttal dished out by Bernard Keane.
On Israel and Palestine
Many good points, but a more historical background is needed. In understanding the conflict in today’s Palestine a good starting point is Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion’s statement in 1937: “We must expel Arabs and take their place…If we are compelled to use force….Our force will enable us to do so”. After WW2 it was never a land without a people for a people without a land. It was a land with the indigenous people already living there who had done so for thousands of years. Ben Gurion said “The Jewish state now being offered to us is not the Zionist objective. […] But it can serve as a decisive stage along the path to greater Zionist implementation. It will consolidate in Palestine, within the shortest possible time, the real Jewish force, which will lead us to our historic goal”. In a discussion in the Jewish Agency he said that he wanted a Jewish-Arab agreement “on the assumption that after we become a strong force, as a result of the creation of the state, we shall abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine”. On the Barak – Arafat negotiations, on 27 July 2000, Noam Chomsky wrote in Z Mag that:
On 17/3/2015 Israeli PM Netanyahu said, during the then election campaign, that if re-elected, he would not permit an independent Palestinian state to exist. On 19/3/2015 he was re-elected. Bob Carr, former NSW Premier and Australian Foreign Minister: “Next time I looked settlement population numbers had soared another 150,000, something which left me with the distinct impression of having been conned – no, having been lied to – by the Israel lobby. Sure we subscribe to a two-state solution, they insist, but while you’re looking the other way we’re spreading settlements as fast as possible to render it impossible.” In summary, since the 1930s, the Israeli leadership class have never had any intention of having a two state solution. It was to be Israel from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River.
Crikey is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while we review, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.