There are too many migrants

coming into Downunder this year. The present government plans on bringing in 400,000 more people - and that does not include people who try to get here illegally. 

Our present population of around 26.5m people simply cannot absorb that number in one year. We don't have the ability to do it. We already have a severe shortage of housing. That alone should be enough to make any government stop and think, "How do we house all these extra people?" Apparently it isn't something they feel they need to think about.

But it isn't just that which worries me. There are other things we don't have and that we need to do much more about before we bring in large numbers of people. Housing is an issue which something can be done about. We can do something about all the other infrastructure needed to support that number of people - the transport, the health services, the education facilities can all be dealt with but we will also need the jobs which support these things. Yes, perhaps we can even manage a great deal of that, especially if we lower our current standard of living.

The present government believes it can absorb this year's 400,000 people by spreading them "out across the regions". This is not where migrants want to live. They want to live in cities where all the services are available, where there is all the support they need. They want to live where there are people from the country they will go on calling "home" even when they become citizens of another country. Unless we have done it ourselves it is impossible to understand how hard it is to move to another country. Even when we want to do it there are many difficulties and many adjustments to be made. When people feel compelled to do it for reasons of security it can be even more difficult. 

We all know these things. Our lives are much more interesting than they might be because of all this cultural diversity. I don't want to see it halted but I think we are taking in too many people too quickly. It seems to me that there is a very big problem we are just not giving enough attention to. We cannot supply an essential. 

What we cannot supply is something which is absolutely vital to life - and that is water. There is a reason why our population is concentrated around the coastline - and just some of the coastline at that. It is because water is scarce on this continent. There are vast areas of desert. If we had water in those areas then we might be able to sustain a much greater population. We need to think about water before we continue to bring in so many people. It can be done but it is going to take work which is not yet being done. If we really want to help then we need to start working on water resources now.