The growth lobby and Australia's immigration policy

Immigration boosts Australia's population growth. A growth lobby concentrated among interests based in housing, land development and construction profits from this and actively lobbies for it. During the early years of the Howard Government (1996 to 1999) the lobby faced the novel situation of a presumably pro business government that reduced immigration. Eventually this induced the lobby to mobilise and to go public, rendering its activity more visible than before. From July 2000 the Government embarked on a series of steep increases in the intake.