News
Issue No. 14 - December/January 2004
SA the Ghost State
How would that slogan look as a number plate?
November was population month in Adelaide, with prominent authorities appearing in Adelaide to discuss the State’s—and the nation’s—looming population watershed. SA’s population has peaked, and is on the downslide unless something can be done to reverse the trend in economically productive ways.
At the recent National Population Summit 2003 projections for Australia’s population updated two closely connected trends:
- we are expected to fall below zero growth by about 2063 and
- our population median age predicted to increase to 45 years by 2041.
Delivering a lecture in early November Professor Graeme Hugo, Director of the National Centre for Social Applications of Geographical Information Systems at the University of Adelaide, laid the stark facts of population decline before gathered members of CPA Australia.
Taking a global view, Professor Hugo argued against “the usual credo of ‘bigger is better” and sought alternative ways to use “our lifestyle and cost advantages to good effect”.
Later in the month came the National Population Summit, where moderator Phillip Adams marshalled a galaxy of speakers including Senator Amanda Vanstone and SA Premier Mike Rann.
Senior economist and population expert Dr Craig Shepherd, a keynote speaker at the Summit, offered a bleak regional outlook without a national agreement on effective population distribution between the States. Australia‘s fourth and fifth ranked cities, Perth and Adelaide, would be under significant pressure over the next 20 to 30 years.
“An agreed national policy between the Federal and State Governments must be developed to remove the risk of living outside the big three cities," he said.
“Unless people are confident of the future, there will be a reluctance to invest, migrants will stay away and essential infrastructure and services will not happen."<...
