In an age where right wing Parties in Europe and America are threatening to close European and American borders to migrants, the Australia is clamouring for the influx of more migrants in the state to boost its population.
The Premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall said that he has lobbied the federal government to grant his state “preferred migrant status’’ to counter its stagnating population growth.
This revelation comes a day day after Matthew Guy, leader of the opposition in the neighbouring state of Victoria, claimed that Melbourne’s rapid population growth left the city “bursting.”
Marshall, who led the SA Liberal Party to a historic election victory in March, used his first meeting with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to address the issue.
“At the moment in Australia we have got a two-speed economy in terms of population”, the premier explained.
“You have got some places which are struggling with massive population increases and you have got other parts of the country which have got very, very low population growth. We would ultimately like to negotiate a preferential migration status for South Australia, especially around increasing regional population and international students,’’
Australia’s population is expected to hit 25 million in August, well ahead of the schedule laid out by previous projections.
South Australia has had the slowest population growth of any mainland state since 2012, recording a net interstate migration loss of 23,000 people.
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Australia is also not known for encouraging migrants so this may come as a surprise to many people. It has had several rows with the Indonesian and New Guinea government for allowing migrants from those countries come to the shores of Australia.
The last batch of migrants and asylum seekers were incarcerated on an island prison for months in inhumane conditions before being repatriated back to their countries of origin.
This piece of news however may prove useful to migrants who try to go through Libya to get to Europe where they die in thousands on a daily basis.