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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-11-24 Daily Xml
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POPULATION TARGETS

The Hon. M. PARNELL (14:56): As a supplementary, who was responsible for preparing the projections of land availability that you referred to? Was it internal departmental officers or external consultants?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (14:56): I am not sure exactly what land availability the honourable member is referring to. Is it the entire HELS program? Is it what was in the 30-year plan or in other documents? The honourable member well knows that we did have a growth area forecast as part of the 30-year plan. It was done through an external consultancy. In relation to population projections, as I said, the department makes the final projection based on input from a number of sources.

Clearly, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is one source, but there is other information that the department takes into account. I should probably also indicate in relation to population that it is not just the actual growth rate, but it is the changes in the demographic which are at least as significant a driver of planning policy within this state. The fact is that our population is ageing—and it is ageing more rapidly than anywhere else in the country—and we will have this significant growth in the number of people aged over 65. By 2036 the percentage of people older than 65 will increase from 18 per cent to 22 per cent of the population under current projections.

That will have significant impacts upon our community about how we house people of that age group, and that will at least be as big a challenge for the government in facing that issue as dealing with the population growth rate itself. It is not only just the growth rate but the composition of the growth rate of our population which is an important factor in planning. If we do not plan for it, we will suffer horribly, because we will not be prepared for the impact that a rapidly ageing population has upon our community and our capacity to pay for it.

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