November 25 2002

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Australia should slash its immigration intake by about one third because Sydney could not cope with the population spurt, NSW Premier Bob Carr said today.

Mr Carr said 75 per cent of Sydney"s total population increase was generated by migration as the bulk of new arrivals settled in the nation"s biggest city.

The federal government increased the overall immigration intake from 93,000 to 110,000 people in May this year.

Mr Carr said that meant Sydney had to find homes for 40,000 more people each year - an increase of 3,000.

Sydney was becoming less hospitable in terms of rising property prices, urban sprawl and higher density housing, Mr Carr said.

"We all want a bigger proportion of the migrant intake to settle in regional Australia - in Hobart, in Adelaide and in regional centres," Mr Carr told reporters.

"The pressure on Sydney is too great.

"Now that is fuelling the pressure on housing in Sydney.

"I would like to see a national intake of about 80,000."

NSW is working with the federal government on a taskforce to divert new arrivals to regional centres but Mr Carr said "the policy options there aren"t that brilliant, aren"t that effective".

He said people were attracted to Sydney"s economic and cultural diversity.

"If you increase the intake, if you force-feed population growth into the Sydney basin the city goes up, or the city goes out or a combination of the two," he said.

"We don"t want to end up with the density of Brooklyn, we don"t want to end up with the sprawl of Los Angeles."