ANU poll shows declining support for ‘bigger Australia’

Public support for population growth and migration in Australia has declined, chiefly due to concerns about low wages, overcrowded cities and the rising cost of housing, an Australian National University opinion poll has found.

Around 70 per cent of participants said the country did not “need more people”, which is an increase of 15 percentage points on a similar ANU poll conducted in 2010.

Nicholas Biddle, associate director of the centre for social research and methods at the ANU in Canberra, said that 84 per cent of participants thought that Australia’s cities were becoming “too crowded and there is too much traffic”.