South Australia desperate for more immigrants

The Premier of South Australia has asked the federal government to grant his state ‘preferential migrant status’ to encourage more migrants to settle in SA.

Steven Marshall says that Australia is currently facing a two-speed population crisis. While some areas have far too many people, others have nowhere near enough. Premier Marshall says his state falls comfortably into the latter category.

“At the moment in Australia we have got a two-speed economy in terms of population,’’ he explained. “You have got some places which are struggling with massive population increases.  Then you have other parts of the country which have got very, very low population growth.

“Last financial year we had about a 10,000 increase. Victoria had a 10,000-person increase every 26 days. Regional Queensland grew at treble the entire South Australian population growth. We would ultimately like to negotiate a preferential migration status for South Australia. Especially around increasing regional population and international students,” he added.

Indeed, since 2012, South Australia has had the lowest population growth on the mainland, with a net loss of 23,000 people to other states.

Moreover, while Melbourne grew by 125,400 people in 2016-17 and Sydney by 101,600 people, Adelaide grew by just 9,600 and regional South Australia by only 846 people.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said that the federal government is currently working on measures to encourage more ­migrants to settle in regional Australia.

Article published 18th July 2018