Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison has flagged reducing Australia's immigration level by 100,000 people a year to allow for sustainable population growth.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is facing further pressure over her sustainable population policy with the opposition saying immigration must be considered as part of the population debate.
In a live debate on the issue aired on ABC Television on Thursday night, Mr Morrison said immigration was a major factor in population pressure.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison has flagged reducing Australia's immigration level by 100,000 people a year to allow for sustainable population growth.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is facing further pressure over her sustainable population policy with the opposition saying immigration must be considered as part of the population debate.
In a live debate on the issue aired on ABC Television on Thursday night, Mr Morrison said immigration was a major factor in population pressure.
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He said reducing Australia's immigration level to 180,000 a year would be a starting point in developing a sustainable population growth policy.
"I do not believe that a sustainable rate of population growth were we currently are at over two per cent is something that any independent analysis could support as being sustainable," Mr Morrison said.
"If Julia Gillard says she's not for the 36 million figure by 2050 then she either has to sign up to at least 180,000 or less or she's not serious."
The comments come after former Labor leader Mark Latham criticised the prime minister, saying population could not be debated without considering immigration.
But Sustainable Population Minister Tony Burke defended the prime minister's stance, saying the starting point in the debate was about quality of life, rather than immigration.
"The starting point of the debate has to be quality of life and we have radically different pressures on that in different parts of Australia," Mr Burke said.
"We have parts of Australia where to get major projects off the ground we need more people and we have other parts of Australia where infrastructure pressures are bursting at the seams."
"So, the distribution of population within the country is actually the biggest pressure of all."
Earlier, opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said the prime minister was a "flake and a fake" for saying she wanted a debate on population without wanting to address immigration levels.
"This is all about sending a spin message to western Sydney and beyond," Mr Hockey said.
© 2010 AAP
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