Australian medical expert wants families to pay a $5000-plus "baby levy"

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

It was a study released about four years ago, I believe by Sustainability Australia.

That's right.

The study said that with the available resources, Australia's optimal population would be somewhere around 5-7 million (optimal being the level at which people can enjoy using as much water/electricity etc etc as they can pay for). The absolute maximum would be 45-50million, at that point, serious shortages of water, food and electricity would be normal.

There's a reason why Australia is one of the most urbanised countries in the world. In a country the size of the US, out of a population of 20 million - the eight capital cities house more than 65% of the population (42.5% in just Sydney and Melbourne alone). That doesn't include major non-capital cities. The resources required to make even a more portion of the land able to sustain agriculture (even cattle raising) are enormous, frankly I think we've gone beyond where we should.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

This is a terrible idea. "Experts" like this douchebag wonder why the public doesn't respect them or listen to their ideas. I agree with Christians and the Vatican on this issue. People should be encouraged to have children, not punished.

Declining population growth is a problem in almost every Developed Country and even a few undeveloped ones. You can't have a functioning society if each woman has on average less than 2.1 children for long periods of time. I know this sounds technical and uncaring, but demography is destiny.

Australia of all places shouldn't be complaining about overpopulation. They need to get move people out of the 5 big cities and into the interior and rural parts of the country. I don't care how "uninhabitable" they are now. Its a waste of resources to leave all that land barren. The rights of Aborigines should be respected of course, but there is land outside the Reserves. Canada and Siberia have lots of land available too. Just because its too "cold" is no excuse for those places not to be developed more.

Ah ha.