Barnaby Joyce is out the door

Dear Friend …

Well, Barnaby Joyce is out the door: https://www.facebook.com/VoteSustainable/posts/1664889660229569

Should we run a candidate in the New England by-election on December 2?

We have a plan for regional and rural Australia that revolves around secure jobs, affordable housing, better planning, and a sustainable environment and population.

Let us know what you think. We’ve created a new page on our website for your New England comments.

New England page: http://www.sustainableaustralia.org.au/new_england?utm_campaign=new_england&utm_medium=email&utm_source=votesustainable

We’re also discussing the issue on our Facebook page …

Media interviews …

This week I had several media interviews around The Australian Population Research Institute’s population and immigration survey, as covered by MacroBusiness.

3AW and 2GB interviews: https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2017/10/sustainable-australia-president-william-bourke-talks-sense-immigration/

If you don’t subscribe to MacroBusiness, I recommend you take a free trial!

Vietnam

On a personal note, I’m just back from a two week holiday in Vietnam, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Like Australia, its population lives on a thin green coastal strip. But of course otherwise it is very different.

It is a country of around 93 million people. Interestingly, around 100 years ago Vietnam had a population of around 15 million, and less than 50 million during the Vietnam War. That’s how quickly population can explode – and it’s the same trajectory Australia is now on this century under the ‘business-as-usual’ growth of our major parties!

My top three Vietnam observations:

– The food is delicious
– The traffic is chaos
– The people are resilient, in often very difficult (poor) economic circumstances

It’s a prime example for Australia to learn from – and helps reinforce the need to steer away from rapid population growth, in order to help achieve an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable Australia.
William Bourke, President, Sustainable Australia