Rann’s population failure

The continued exodus of people from South Australia has prompted Minister Tom Koutsatonis to conduct a review of the Rann Labor Government’s poputalition policy.

Australian Bureau of Statistics released on the 25th May 2010 reveal that more than 26,300 people left South Australia during 2008-2009 highlighting the failure of the Rann Labor Governments’ 2004 Population policy.

Shadow Minister for Sustainability, Michelle Lensink said that Rann Labor’s population policy promised to “reduce net loss to interstate to zero by 2008”, yet in 2008-09 this figure was 4,676 .

“Minister Tom Koutsantonis’ announcement of a review of the government’s population targets and strategies to attract people to SA is a blatant bid to camouflage the abysmal failure of Labor’s population policies,” Ms Lensink said.

“In announcing the review Tom Koutsantonis also neglected to acknowledge that South Australia’s share of skilled migration fell in 2008-09 by 0.9 per cent and has been in decline since 2006-07 – another population negative for SA.

“The Rann Labor Government has ignored its own policy objectives and targets to the detriment of the state.

“South Australia is being hamstrung by a skills shortage and after almost nine years the Rann Labor Government has no idea how to improve skill levels and population growth in SA.”

Australian Government Department of Immigration and Citizenship: Population Flows: Immigration Aspects 2008-09 Edition, page 148