Stable Population Party

The Sustainables are pleased to endorse a truly local candidate for the 2015 North Sydney by-election - our party president William Bourke. William has a background in small business, finance and marketing, as well as a passion for nature and sustainable living.
His platform in this election includes:
Saving Royal North Shore Hospital from public land sell-offs
Education and childcare places for all
Stopping our rampant overdevelopment
Housing affordability for renters and first home buyers
Reducing the rapid population growth that's part of our growing local problems

Follow William on Twitter: CLICK HERE

From William:

As a long term local resident and small business owner in North Sydney, I'm privileged to represent our community movement in our party's heartland. Our national party HQ is based in North Sydney (Crows Nest).

Unlike the professional politicians I will be up against, I have over twenty years of work/life experience. I have completed two business degrees and have real world experience in finance, federal government corporate communications and importantly, small business.

I regularly enjoy the outdoors including running and bushwalking in Sydney's national parks where it is possible to see our magnificent native wildlife including goannas, wallabies and kookaburras. We are very blessed on the North Shore, and need to conserve it for future generations.

You'll find my full bio here: CLICK HERE

There are a number of key issues I will be campaigning on for the people of North Sydney, including:

• Saving Royal North Shore Hospital from public land sell-offs
• Education and childcare places for all
• Stopping our rampant overdevelopment
• Housing affordability for renters and first home buyers
• Reducing the rapid population growth that's part of our growing local problems

All of these key issues and many more are addressed in our policies page.

I also believe that the major parties are too closely aligned to vested interests, including the big end of town and big unions. We need transparent governments that get back to focusing on the public and national interest.

I am very proud of our community movement that I founded in 2010. We reject the old left–right political spectrum, along with its fixed political positions and ideologies. Instead we pursue centrist, evidence-base policies, for all Australians.

I'd like to communicate with as many residents of North Sydney as possible. So, please contact me with your questions and any feedback.

You'll find my campaign media release here: CLICK HERE

We need to redefine 'growth' to secure a better, not bigger North Sydney and Australia.

Please give me your support and your #1 vote.

That's the only way to protest the rapid population growth policies of the Liberals and Greens (Labor didn't have the courage to run).

Vote 1 SUSTAINABLE!

Does Size Matter? was the question posed by the title of Assistant Shadow Treasurer Andrew Leigh's talk to the Lowy Institute on Thursday 13th of March. The answer arrived at at the end of his talk was that the quality of people was more important than the quantity. The talk was billed as giving an economic perspective on the population debate and this is exactly what the audience got. Absent were inconvenient scientific perspectives like ecological footprint, climate change, water and energy security.

This was a talk high on optimism that technology can solve all of our problems and that more of the right kind of immigrants will give us a better chance of developing that technology.

The event promo also claimed that several myths about the population debate were going to be dispelled. Some were welcome observations such as the point that the population debate was separate to the refugee issue and that high immigration was not the answer to population aging.

Malthus also came in for a serve but you have to wonder how intelligent people can be so quick to ridicule Malthus when the UN estimates that two billion people cannot get adequate food.

The subject of infrastructure overload was mentioned but again Mr Leigh's optimism dismissed this as a mere failure to adequately plan for the future rather than laying the blame on high population growth.

The institute's namesake Frank Lowy would have given smiling approval to the thrust of this talk. Immigrants have a greater entrepreneurial spirit and benefit the Australian economy in numerous ways we were told.

In the end the idea that numbers were not important in the population debate did not ring true. Mr Leigh lives in Canberra which is the size of Australia's annual growth. You have to hope that when he drives around the city he may come to the realisation that the reason we cannot build this amount of infrastructure every year is not because of planning but because it's just a physical impossibility.

Perhaps this would be a little optimistic, however.

Kris Spike is the Vice President of the Sustainable Population Party

"..70% of Australians prefer a smaller population. They don't want a 'Big Australia' by 2050, and, none of the major parties are listening. So we're here to give the majority of Australians the choice that they want. [...] We're about the people, the citizens of Australia, who deserve a choice." Timothy Diamond Lawence, Griffith candidate.

Timothy Diamond Lawrence, Sustainable Population Party candidate for Griffith by-election on Saturday 8 February 2014. The seat of Griffith is in Brisbane, Kevin Rudd's old electorate. Now Rudd has resigned, there is a by-election. Brisbane and Queensland are the focus of unsustainable population growth; Education, roads, housing cannot keep up and the beautiful environment is being destroyed. Land and housing prices, energy and vital resources prices are all inflating due to population pressure. Homelessness, debt, despair increasing, along with unemployment. Labor and the LibNationals are equally guilty in this, having actively orchestrated overpopulation to please big business. The Greens won't touch the issue. Only the Sustainable Population Party (previously Stable Population Party) is showing courage to represent peoples' democratic wishes here. For this reason I am publicising Tim Diamond Lawrence.

For a recent earlier article on Mr Lawrence and the Sustainable Population Party, click here.

Let’s ask why Greens, Liberals & Labor suppress the population issue: Stable Population Party - The party says it will reveal all in a front-page ad in the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday. The Stable Population Party points out that, despite a ‘massive thumbs down for big Australia’, [1] with 70 per cent hoping the population does not hit the 40 million mark projected by 2050, no major party will raise population as a campaign issue.

Tri-partisan undemocratic push by Lib/Lab/Greens

They say that this is because there is a tri-partisan undemocratic push for our unsustainable population growth of
over 1000 people per day, or well over a million people every three years – the size of Adelaide!

William Bourke, the leader of the Stable Population Party said today,

"Despite holding the balance of power in both houses of parliament, not once did The Greens question Julia Gillard regarding her broken promise to “not hurtle down the track towards a big Australia.” [2]

Yet our rapid population growth is the single biggest environmental threat we face.

Why exactly are the major parties pushing rapid population growth?

The Stable Population Party say that they are about to reveal two key reasons, and that they have taken the extraordinary step of placing a post-it note advertisement on the front of every Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday September 3.

“By standing Senate candidates in every state and territory, the Stable Population Party is the only
party providing a choice on the biggest issue facing Australia – population growth,” said William Bourke, President and NSW Senate candidate for the Stable Population Party.

“Population growth is now the underlying issue linked to all of Australia's major problems."

Bourke says that there are six key reasons to vote for a stable population.

A stable population will help:

- Relieve overstretched infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, roads and public transport;
- Ease cost of living pressures, including housing, energy, water and transport;
- Protect our environment, including food, water & energy resources, and animal habitats;
- Promote education and training, to increase job opportunities for all Australians;
- Minimise overdevelopment, including high-rise and sprawl; and
- Create a more resilient economy, to sustain and enhance prosperity.

“Population is not a single issue, it is the everything issue, and we need a choice. We won't resolve
any of Australia's major problems until we first stabilise population. We must think better, not bigger," says William Bourke.

Challenge to the Media

“Let’s spark this boring election campaign into life. We challenge the media to question the major
parties on why they won’t stop Australia’s population hitting 40 million by 2050 - and then sit back
and watch the pollies squirm,” said Mr Bourke.

Stable Population Party website: http://www.PopulationParty.org.au

[1] http://www.news.com.au/tablet/massive-thumbs-down-for-big-australia/story-fnehlez2-1226560309280
[2]

Labor MP David Bradbury must correct error riddled conservation funding announcement (NSW), says Geoff Brown, Stable Population Party candidate. Mr Brown, who is a New South Wales natural conservation activist, has long fought to retain Cumberland plain woodland against attempts by governments to allow it to be destroyed for massive suburban developments. He believes now that the ALP has tried to take credit for his concept of the Cumberland Conservation Corridor. Geoff is running as a candidate for the Stable Population Party.

Mark Butler, the Federal Environment Minister, and David Bradbury, Labor member for Lindsay and the Assistant Treasurer, have been called on by Geoff Brown, the Stable Population Party candidate for Lindsay, to set the voters of Lindsay straight, after Lindsay's leading local newspaper, the Penrith Press, printed a half page story riddled with errors and misinformation about Labors 2010 federal election commitment of $7.5 million towards the establishment of the Cumberland Conservation Corridor.

Geoff Brown, also the President of the Western Sydney Conservation Alliance, developed the concept for the Cumberland Conservation Corridor in 2005, and at the 2010 election ran as an Independent using preference negotiations with Labor and Liberal to extract the $7.5 million deal from Labor. So he is on top of this issue. Several articles published by candobetter.net show his record on this matter. See Cumberland plain woodland and Geoff Brown.

Brown described himself as "livid" when he read the Penrith Press article which erroneously stated that Labor had announced $7.5m towards establishing the Cumberland Conservation Corridor. He said the article made it look as if Labor had just made some new 2013 committment. He said the voters of Linsay would be confused.

"The story should have been about why it took 3 years to fulfill their 2010 commitment. The article was littered with errors based on the dubious media release put out by David Bradbury and Mark Butler. If not corrected it will let Labor off the hook in Lindsay from announcing any new local conservation funding outcomes for the 2013 election. Labor may try to fudge their way out of it”.

Geoff Brown called on David Bradbury and Mark Butler to front the voters of Lindsay and tell them:

" - That neither Labor nor Liberals have yet promised any new conservation money in Lindsay for the 2013 election
- The announcement cited by the Penrith Press was from the 2010 election and it took 3 years to cobble together an outcome
- The Mulgoa biobanking site stays in private ownership so will not become part of the publicly owned Mulgoa Nature Reserve. So no net public benefit or use for education
- The Mulgoa site was never at threat of development and was already protected under Penrith Councils LEP which zones it E2 Environmental Conservation (I argued that money be better spent trying to conserve bushland in Penriths north at risk of development)
- That nearly half of the $7.5 million was spent on land care projects that are outside the Lindsay electorate and nowhere near the proposed Cumberland Conservation Corridor. Projects such as those in the Blue Mountains and the Cranebrook wetland project are not anywhere near the CCC
- That $3.4 million funding for weed removal and the planting trees is exactly what Tony Abbott proposes with his Green Army and Direct Action policy. This outcome condones the Liberals policy
- That 2000 ha of local bush land has not been protected (David’s MR and his letterbox propaganda claims he has saved 2000 ha of local bush land. He is claiming to have protected the 558 ha Airservices Australia land at Shanes Park and 1300 ha of bush at the Orchard Hillls Defence Establishment. These sites are not formally protected. Shanes Park has the proposed Castlereagh Freeway running through it)
- That biobanking is a scheme whereby there is a net loss of habitat. Bushland gets bulldozed with developers offsetting that clearing by funding the management of bushland elsewhere. In this case the State funding came from the clearing of critically endangered bushland in the Sydney Growth Centres. It is a highly dubious method of conserving nature.
- That the land owner is not raising his income from selling the biobanking credits. He gets a guaranteed $6.6 million as the joint Federal and State funding has already purchased the credits."

Labor caught out moving the fence posts

Geoff Brown added that Labor has been caught out trying to change the location of the Cumberland Conservation Corridor. As an example he cited the wetlands at Cranebrook near the Waterside housing estate as being 'nowhere near' the CCC.”

Mr Brown says that Lindsay voters need to be aware that Labor has not yet committed any new money towards conserving bushland within the Cumberland Conservation Corridor.

Mr Brown met last week with Mark Butler and David Bradbury calling on them to fund the protection of 1500 ha of Priority Conservation Land north of the ADI Site that is threatened. He says that the 50 ha of Mulgoa land was already zoned for protection but this 1500 ha of bushland has no such conservation zoning.

In his opinion, the only way it will be zoned for conservation by Penrith Council is if there is money on the table to buy it.

"The voters of Lindsay need to join with the Stable Population Party in calling on Labor and Liberal to commit to protecting this land.”

A better, not a bigger Australia

Mr Brown concluded by saying that to his knowledge, the Stable Population Party is the only minor political party in Lindsay actively lobbying Labor and Liberal about protecting the environment and limiting more urban sprawl and traffic congestion. He said that voters could rest assured that the Stable Population Party stands for a better not a bigger Australia.

Reporting on the Australian elections by the ABC is Orwellian. If it sends chills down your spine then you will understand why candobetter.net is so keen to publicise political alternatives, especially any that promise a civilised halt to the overpopulation juggernaut to which Tony Abbot and Kevin Rudd have hitched their evil stars. This article promotes information about the candidate list for the Stable Population Party. The introduction was written by Sheila Newman, who has also filmed their Victorian candidates.

The Stable Population Party has announced that it has now finalised Senate groups in all states and territories. it has also just approved House of Representatives (local) candidates in the seats of Griffith (challenging Kevin Rudd) and Denison (challenging Andrew Wilkie). It has a final total of 26 candidates in our very first election.

Candidate list: CLICK HERE

The party is looking for polling place volunteers.

If you would like to join a support group for one of our 10 local candidates for other campaign activities, please let us know ASAP and we will put you in touch: CLICK HERE

House of Representatives

Final list of House of Representatives candidates:

NSW

BEROWRA - Deborah Smythe

LINDSAY - Geoff Brown

EDEN-MONARO - Martin Tye

WARRINGAH - Mike Cottee

QLD

BRISBANE - John Roles

GRIFFITH - Jan McNicol

TAS

DENISON - Brandon Hoult

VIC

LALOR - Jonathan Page

MELBOURNE - Michael Bayliss

MELBOURNE PORTS - Steven Armstrong

Senate

The Stable Population Party is running Senate groups in every state and territory, so every Australian voter will be able to vote for a stable population above the line on the Senate (large white) ballot paper.

Fundraising campaign

The Party is getting close to achieving our fundraising goals, to ensure it can pay the $32,000 Senate nomination fees, as well as 10 local candidate nomination fees of $1,000 each.

It is looking for help.

Donations of $20, $100 or more are greatly appreciated. Donations up to $1,500 per annum are tax-deductible.

To donate: CLICK HERE

William Bourke is the President of the Stable Population Party. www.populationparty.org.au

Like them on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/populationparty

Follow them on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/populationparty

The Stable Population Party declares itself to be "Committed a stable, sustainable, open and tolerant Australia."

This article features videos of the four Victorian based candidates for the Stable Population Party - Jill Quirk, Clifford Hayes, Michael Bayliss, Steven Armstrong and Jonathan Page - not necessarily in that order. It is very interesting to see what the candidates have to say and how they present. Australians have a chance of making a crucial difference by voting for these candidates in the Senate and in the lower house for the next Federal Election. Candidates are also running in other states. Check this website for details: http://www.populationparty.org.au/templates/pop/page/page_html_standard.php?secID=210

The first video is of senate candidate Jill Quirk, who gives quite a rundown of Victoria's population problems. Many candobetter net readers will know of Jill. It is good to see that the Stable Population Party is running a woman with such experience in population matters. Jill has been particularly active in campaigning for a sustainable population over the last 10 years after a lifelong interest and concern for the environment especially our native fauna. She approaches this issue as a writer and artist as well as leading and educating on the issue within an environmental population organisation. She is convinced that for future survival not only of Australia’s wildlife but ultimately for its people, we must plan towards a stable population living within the severe environmental constraints of our land.

Clifford Hayes has more than five years experience as a councillor at Bayside City Council in Melbourne. He held the position of Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Clifford was elected by the community on a platform of planning reform, opposing high rise over-development in Bayside (100,000 residents). Clifford also has significant experience in the film and television industry and farm management (viticulture). He enjoys swimming and the arts.

Michael Bayliss is running for Melbourne. Michael has post graduate degrees in both economics and sport science and has developed inclusive sports programs for people with disabilities in capital cities across Australia (was finalist in the WA support worker awards in 2012). He has also been an advocate and campaigner for disability inclusion, animal rights and sustainable town planning. Michael strongly believes that a stable population will help address Australia's housing crisis, environmental toll and infrastructure debt.

Steven Armstrong is an electronics contractor and a surfer. Steven became interested in the population issue 25 years ago when he was astounded to hear Bob Hawke urging us all on to 50 million. Having waited patiently for the major parties to come to their senses, Steven now realises this is not going to happen. In order to offer a democratic choice to the people of Melbourne Ports, and challenge 'big Australia' advocate Michael Danby MP, Steven has decided to act.

Jonathan Page is running for the seat of Lalor.
Jonathan has a professional background in science and a strong connection with the Australian environment, having spent much of his formative years bushwalking. He treasures the beauty of many other species on this planet and is pained when hearing about the next Australian species under threat due to land clearing or other human activity. Jonathan is also particularly concerned about the housing affordability crisis, which of course, is exacerbated by rapidly growing demand for a finite resource (habitable land in well serviced areas).

The last video is of NSW-based William Bourke, who is the leader of the party. I have featured this video in another article on candobetter.net. William gives a very clear idea of what the Stable Population Party is offering.

A better quality of life

SPPA calls for "A better quality of life" and articulates six reasons to vote for a stable population:

to Relieve overstretched infrastructure, incluidng hospitals, schools, roads and public transport;
to Ease cost of living pressures, including housing, energy, water and transport;
to Protect our environment, including food, water and energy resources, native bushland and animal habitats;
to Promote education and training to increase job opportunities for all Australians;
to Minimise overdevelopment, including high-rise and sprawl;
to Create a more resilient economy, to sustain and enhance prosperity.

According to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, at 30 June 2010, an estimated 566 815 New Zealand citizens were present in Australia. Total departures to Australia were a record 53,900 departures, offset by14,000 arrivals from Australia.
Already there are unlimited temporary sponsored working visas to Australia. These "temporary" workers are then allowed, after 4 years, to apply for PR. New Zealanders can enter Australia unlimited. Business-savvy migrants with at least $5 million to invest in Australia can apply for new investor visas from November.

Unlimited New Zealanders

Under various arrangements since the 1920s, there has been a free flow of people between Australia and New Zealand.

The 1973 Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement has allowed Australian and New Zealand citizens to enter each other's country to visit, live and work, without the need to apply for authority to enter the other country.

According to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, at 30 June 2010, an estimated 566 815 New Zealand citizens were present in Australia.

Clifford Hayes, Victorian Senate candidate for the new Stable Population Party, said rapid growth was worsening urban congestion and damaging the environment. Australia's population grew by 1.4 per cent to reach 22.5 million by the end of last year.

Cr Hayes, who is deputy mayor of Bayside Council, said more than 50,000 New Zealanders moved to Australia during the past year.
He said the deal that allows unlimited trans-Tasman migration should be abolished.

Call to Stem Kiwi tide as States Head Count Surges- Herald Sun

Total departures to Australia were a record 53,900 departures, offset by14,000 arrivals from Australia. In both directions, most migrants were Kiwis. They seek higher wages and a better standard of living, thus creating a political issue for the National government, which vowed to reverse the trend.

From the data gathered the findings suggest that the Amendment to the TransTasman Travel Agreement has had a number of negative impacts on the Pacific Islander and Maori population in South East Queensland. The younger generation experience barriers to education, which constrains employment opportunities and exacerbates social problems within families, communities and broader Australia.

Out of Reach, Out of Sight : Unequal Opportunities across the Tasman. Tove Andersson, Rebecca Latta, Jeremy Leonard and Jordan Stock . University of Queensland.

457 Working Visas

Already there are unlimited temporary sponsored working visas to Australia. These "temporary" workers are then allowed, after 4 years, to apply for PR. New Zealanders can enter Australia unlimited.

This 457 visa allows a business to employ someone from outside Australia in a skilled job in Australia. If you hold this visa, you can:
- work in Australia for up to four years
- bring your family with you (people who may not be skilled)
- travel in and out of Australia as often as you want

The 457 visa is Australia’s principal long-term working visa, and as such is the favoured means among Australian employers looking to bring on skilled offshore talent, or individuals who want to work temporarily in Australia.

The 457 visa program is demand driven and therefore uncapped (unlimited in the number of visas the government can approve) and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) "Centres of Excellence" who process these applications prioritise quick processing so that Australian businesses can access the skilled workers they need from overseas without delay through the visa process.

Immigration Program: record numbers, city bound

At the time of the 2012 May Budget announcements the Labor Government indicated that there would be a further increase in the permanent-entry program from 163,000 in 2010–11 and 185,000 in 2011–12 to 190,000 in 2012–13.

The skilled program includes points-tested, state-sponsored, business-sponsored and employer-sponsored migrants. The humanitarian program is likely to add another 14,000. These categories add to 204,000, which is the highest annual permanent entry level since World War Two.

This record-high intake will occur at the same time as the Labor Government is permitting employers to sponsor an unlimited number of temporary entry 457 visa holders.

(The 2012–13 immigration program: record numbers, city-bound Bob Birrell and Genevieve Heard. Centre for Population and Urban Research , Monash University, May 2012)

Their conclusion:

The Government’s migration program is out-of-date. It is now part of the problem. The new circumstances require a smaller and better targeted intake, which delivers scarce skills to the industries and locations which really need them. The rest of the program should be culled until the current employment crisis is over.

With little industry in Australia, and heavy reliance on the now-peaked mining industries, wealth creation and revenue raising has resorted to actually poaching not only skilled from Asia and developing nations, but the wealthy too. It assumes that Australia has unlimited natural resources to plunder, and that any population pressures, infrastructure shortages and costs of living can simply be passed onto voters who will bear the brunt of this excessive welcome to Australia of unlimited numbers of foreigners.

Discussing of population has been (almost) successively squashed by political correctness, and any criticism of our immigration levels - mostly from Asia - is often unreasonably deemed "racist" and "xenophobic".

We face challenging times ahead, with a changing climate and managing natural resource depletions. Adding more people is a sign that those who have their bums on seats in our political power-houses have little appreciation of Nature, planetary threats, social justice issues, and the pressures on our social and environmental structures that are exacerbated by increasing populations.

Australia is being wrecked by an environmentally bankrupt administration. They imagine that Australia is no more than an Economy, and our economy can survive, despite a sterile and depleted environment, overwhelmed by concrete housing, urban sprawl and the multiple demands of growing human numbers.

False assumptions

Birrell and Heard conclude that the Labor government has acted on two assumptions. One is that the minerals boom will require a huge increase in skilled workers who must be drawn in part from migration. The other is that, as a consequence of the resources boom, the rest of the Australian economy will surge, generating a nation-wide shortage of skilled workers.

The first of these assumptions is correct, but not the second. DIAC’s skilled visas are structured on the assumption that there are nation-wide shortages of skilled workers and that employers everywhere should be allowed to sponsor 457s and permanent migrants in any skilled occupation, industry or location in Australia. As a result most of the migrants in the record-high intake planned will end up in East coast cities, particularly Sydney and Melbourne. They will add to the stresses of Australian workers struggling to find work in a weak labour market.

It's also tunnel-vision thinking – the jobs market, skills supply and economic development do not embrace democratic considerations, housing, costs of living pressure, environmental impacts, human footprints, and social/economic implications for existing Australians.

New Business migration

Business-savvy migrants with at least Got $5 million? Here's a visa - The Age can apply for new investor visas from November. The investment visas were announced in May and Immigration Minister Chris Bowen released what the conditions were on Wednesday.

People can submit expressions of interest through SkillSelect from November 24.

Australia seen as a refuge in a troubled world

The Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) is uncovering record numbers of fraudulent weddings and spouse claims being made by visa cheats in order to gain Australian citizenship.

The Herald Sun recently reported details of DIAC's efforts to find and act upon the fraudulent claims:
Immigration report reveals Former foreign students switched visas in a bid to stay in Australia

More than 1300 overseas-born partners have been sent packing in the past four years after their relationships with Australian residents and citizens were exposed as lies - 406, or eight a week, in the past year alone.

Given the increasing value of an Australian visa in a troubled world and the massive interest in coming to Australia it is high time that we raised the bar, Monash University immigration expert Bob Birrell said.

 Immigration officials granted 45,150 partner visas in the past year, almost 20,000 more than 15 years ago.

Australia is assumed to be a repository, a safe haven, and unlimited resource for jobs, housing, food, and immune from the world's increasing problems – caused largely by human overpopulation.