A Greater Australia: Population, policies and governance - CEDA

Section 1.335 W.D. Foresyth, The Myth of Open Spaces, p 68.36 See William Coleman, Selwyn Cornish and Alf Hagger, Giblin’s Platoon: The Trials and Triumphs of the Economist in Australian PublicLife, ANU EPress37 S.J. Butlin, ‘Frederic Benham: 1900–62’, Economic Record 38(83), p 386–388.38 F.C. Benham, ‘The Optimum Size of Population’ The Peopling of Australia, P.D. Phillips ed, p 254.39 F.C. Benham, ‘The Optimum Size of Population’ The Peopling of Australia, P.D. Phillips ed, p 257.40 F.C. Benham, The Prosperity of Australia: An Economic Analysis.41 This property of the optimum is pointed out by J.D. Pitchford, The Economics of Population: An Introduction: at the optimum the averageproduct of labour equals the marginal product, which is what labour is paid in a competitive environment.42 Of course, one could imagine redistributions between factors so that the optimum actually improves all.43 ∂Y/∂N = y(l)−ly’. The right hand side is negative if y 0 at the optimum population.Scitovsky, “Two Concepts of External Economics”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 62 p.14346 Arthur Smithies, 1938, The future of the Australian Population, in Australian Population, Sydney, Australian Institute of InternationalAffairs.47 The marginal utility product of potato labour = marginal utility of potatoes* marginal potato product of labour.48 Smithies sophisticates his analysis by allowing for international trade. If all boots were exported for an importable. there would bemarginal utility product of boot export labour that would bear the same general shape as boot marginal utility product of boots labour;but would bend down more sharply on account of a second downward pressure in addition to diminishing marginal utility: the terms oftrade worsen as boot production is increased.49 Peter Karmel, Population and Policy, p 21.50 Pitchford appears to be the only post 1930s economist who explores it.51 Martin Bell, 1992, ‘Demographic Projections and Forecasts in Australia: a Directory and Digest”, Australian Government PublishingService.52 SH Wolstenholme, ‘The Future of Australian Population:’ Economic Record 12 (23), p 195–213.53 W.D. Borrie, 1947 A White Australia: Australia’s Population Problem. That WD Borrie, “the founder of Australian demography” entitledthis volume A White Australia: Australia’s Population Problem is another reminder that the European ethnicity of Australia’s populationwas almost universally treated as a policy parameter in this period. It is the rarity of the exceptions that are interesting: Griffith Taylorrecommending the “mingling” of white Australian population with Asians, and FW Eggleston’s 1937 remark that “a mixture of races ison the whole good”.54 A more measured pessimism about fertility in post-War Australia is found in Peter Karmel, ‘Population Replacement – Australia,Economic Record 25 (49) 83–88.55 In 1971 John Coulter (Australian Democrat Senator 1987–1995) explained: ‘Why is it that population cannot continue to expandindefinitely? Quite simply the planet earth is finite and at our present rate in a few hundred years there will be standing room only, onlya few hundred years after that the heat radiated by human bodies would raise the temp of the earth surface to that of molten iron.”Population, the main polluter: condensed papers symposium, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science,South Australian Division56 K.D Cocks, People Policy: Australia’s Population Choices, and Mark O’Connor, This tired brown land. Doug Cocks stated: “Populationgrowth will reduce per capita share/access to those unique natural goods, like snow-fields, beaches and recreational rivers, which noteven the most prosperous economy can create.”57 Steve Vizard, Hugh J. Martin and Tim Watts, Australia’s Population Challenge.A Greater Australia: Population, Policies and Governance48