Australian minister laughs off claims that the country is to crowded for immigrants

November 13 2009 by Liam Clifford

The argument that Australia is over-populated is laughable says the Finance Minister of Australia.

The Finance Minister of Australia, Lindsay Tanner, has laughed off suggestions that Australia is over-populated; speaking to the Property Council of Australia in Melbourne, Tanner claimed countries would be incredulous if Australians made that argument as a justifiable excuse for its current crack-down on immigration into Australia.

The Minister’s position on the subject, however, is at odds to most of his fellow Labor party members and environmentalists.

As recently as this week Labor backbencher, Kelvin Thomson, claimed Australia urgently needed to curb what he called its ‘runaway population,’ by drastically reducing the current Australian immigration program to 70,000.

On speaking about Australian immigration Tanner said;

"Melbourne had 487 inhabitants per square kilometre in 2006. Most major European cities are much more densely populated, often housing several thousand people per square kilometre,"

"Even Dublin has a population density of 1,273 per square kilometre.”

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