Big Australia was a term used by former Australian Prime Minister

Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...

to describe an increase in the

population of Australia The population of Australia is estimated to be as of . The population estimate shown is automatically calculated daily at 00:00 UTC and is based on data obtained from the population clock on the date shown in the citation. Australia is the 55 ...

from 22 million in 2010 to 36 million in 2050, along with the policies needed to react to it. In 2009, Rudd stated that he was in favour of a "big Australia" in response to a demographic projection in the Government's ''Intergenerational Report'', which showed that the

would increase from 22 million in 2010 to 35 million in 2050. A portion of the growth involved continued high rates of

immigration to Australia The Australian continent was first settled when ancestors of Indigenous Australians arrived via the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia and New Guinea over 50,000 years ago. European colonisation began in 1788 with the establishment of a ...

, which proved controversial. In April 2010, Rudd appointed

Tony Burke Anthony Stephen Burke (born 4 November 1969) is an Australian politician serving as Leader of the House, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for the Arts since 2022. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP ...

to the position of Minister for Population and asked him to develop a population policy. Julia Gillard, who ousted Rudd from office in June 2010, stated shortly after taking over that she did not support Rudd's position. In her opinion, a "big Australia" would be unsustainable. Gillard's position was "a sustainable Australia, not a big Australia". The Government released a "sustainable population strategy" in May 2011, which did not specify a target population. In October 2011 trade minister

Craig Emerson Craig Anthony Emerson (born 15 November 1954) is an Australian economist and former Australian Labor Party politician. He served as the Australian House of Representatives Member for the Division of Rankin in Queensland from 1998 until 2013. E ...

released a paper with Gillard's approval that advocated for continued rapid rates of population growth. Demographic projections released by the Queensland Centre for Population Research in 2011 found that there is a 50 per cent likelihood of Australia's population being larger than 35 million by 2050. Similarly, the latest ABS projections (3222.0) have a midpoint projection of 37.1 million for 2050. These projections always assume net migration of at least 175,000, a figure unknown to Australia before 2006, when John Howard achieved 182,000.

References

Further reading