Read supporting evidence

  • Skilled migrants bring ideas, innovation and new cultures, grow our trade and investment links and bring the capacity to train and skill their local co-workers. A well-targeted skilled migration program complements the Australian-born workforce.
  • Population growth can offset the impact of population ageing on economic growth.
    • The number of people aged 15 to 64 for every person aged 65 and over is estimated to fall from 4.5 people today to 2.7 people by 2054-55.
    • The share of the working age population is projected to fall from about 67 per cent to 61 per cent by 2050.
  • If we fail to plan for population growth we will experience worsening congestion, environmental degradation and other negative consequences that will detract from liveability and sustainability and increase opposition to population growth in the community.
  • Australia’s economy will double in size and be home to about 35 million people by 2050. This growth will be coupled with the challenges associated with a rapidly ageing population.
  • By 2050 the share of the population living in Australia’s capital cities is projected to reach
    70 per cent up from 60 per cent.
  • Australian employers overwhelmingly prefer to hire locally, but need to be able to access the best and brightest foreign workers when there are skill shortages.
  • Infrastructure shortcomings diminish our quality of life, reducing our competitiveness and eroding community support for growth.
  • Our infrastructure must be reliable, accessible, high quality and world-class.
  • The private sector should do the bulk of the heavy lifting on funding and financing infrastructure. When governments have to step in, it means spending on areas such as health and education are crowded out.
  • The Productivity Commission estimates if reforms to the efficiency of both the road and rail freight sectors were implemented, there could be a 5 per cent increase in the productivity of both sectors.
    • This would translate into an increase in GDP of just under 0.4 per cent or around $7 billion in today’s economy.
  • The Grattan Institute estimates that between 2001 and 2016 federal and state governments spent an additional $28 billion on cost overruns on transport infrastructure projects worth more than $20 million – around one-quarter of the original budgets.
  • The Productivity Commission estimates that based on current levels of investment, if infrastructure cost 10 per cent less to deliver, this would save governments around $2.9 billion each year.
  • The provision of infrastructure, housing and other services in Australia’s fastest-growing cities and regional centres needs to keep pace with economic activity.
  • Investments need to be planned many years in advance.
  • The purpose of strategic planning by state governments should be to resolve land-use conflicts strategically rather than on a development-by-development basis.
  • Reforms to planning approvals can help to bring forward Australia’s pipeline of almost $400 billion in prospective major public and private investments.
  • Major project assessment complexity and delay can add as much as $2 billion to a project’s costs.
  • The Reserve Bank of Australia estimates zoning restrictions increase the average house price by $489,000 in Sydney and $324,000 in Melbourne.
  • Strategic planning should ensure the timely release of land for new housing.
  • Australia can’t afford major peaks and troughs in housing supply and demand, which harm housing affordability and choice.
  • The harmful impacts of excessive or complex development levies on new housing investment need to be reduced.
    • Taxes and charges can make up to 40 per cent of the total cost for new homes.