AUSTRALIA's population is set to explode, reaching at least 36 million by 2050, and probably a lot more. As it stands, our population is already growing at a faster percentage rate than any developed nation, and faster than countries like China, India and Indonesia.

Last year we added almost the equivalent of the state of Tasmania - 480,000 people - in a single year.

Think about all the roads, schools, parks, hospitals and homes in Tassie. That's about what we have to build just to maintain our standard of living and we need to do it every 12 months!

If we maintain anything like this rate of growth in the years to come, I believe it will be a disaster. The way of life we love in Australia will be forever changed as we are crowded into packed and dirty cities.

State governments are already struggling to keep up with the current growth, let alone dealing with many millions more.

Just look at the 30-year fiasco that is Sydney's mythical second airport. Brisbane can't decide what to do about dams, Melbourne can't implement a co-ordinated public transport system and we are building hugely expensive desalination plants just to have enough drinking water.

Does anyone really believe we are suddenly going to discover the secret of adding a city bigger than Canberra every year for the next 40 years?

As Labor backbencher Kelvin Thomson has previously warned, we are sleep-walking towards disaster.

And speaking of Canberra, don't look there for leadership on this issue. Last October the Prime Minister declared he was "unapologetically in favour of a Big Australia". But by last month, sensing that many Australians were uneasy with uncontrolled population growth, he had changed his tune.

When asked about the forecast of a 60 per cent jump to 35 million, he said, "I don't have a view on that, it's simply the reality". It was as if the Government has no plan and no influence on the outcome.

Yet Rudd controls the main lever on population growth: immigration.

Our current immigration intake is at record levels, a trend begun under the Howard government. Yet we have never been asked if we think it's a wise idea.

Just what exactly are the benefits of a Big Australia? Treasurer Wayne Swan argues we must keep feeding more taxpayers into the system to prepare for when Baby Boomers start retiring.

Yet his own study, the Intergenerational Report, shows the number of seniors in the population will be less than previously predicted.

In fact Australia has one of the youngest population profiles of any advanced nation and Mr Swan's strategy ignores the reality that immigrants become old too one day.

It's like a giant Ponzi scheme, a short-term fix that will do nothing to provide for Australia's long-term security. But it would be unfair to just pick on the Government. In recent weeks the Opposition has been just as confused, both welcoming Australia's record level of immigration and threatening to slash it.

The result is that we do not have a population policy - no direction and no idea how many people our arid and fragile environment can sustain.

Are our politicians too frightened to offend the powerful business, religious and financial interests that support unrestrained growth?

This isn't about being a selfish nation that closes its eyes to a world heading towards nine billion people.

Developing nations need the food we export, but soon Australia will likely become a net importer of food, literally taking food out of the mouths of the poor.

Already our immigration system encourages the plundering of the best doctors, nurses and engineers from the nations that can least afford to lose them.

Once we were part of the Colombo Plan, training the brightest from elsewhere then sending them home to build their own nations. Now we are so desperate that we offer citizenship just to fill our own ever-expanding needs.

I've been criticised for calling for a reduction in our immigration levels, an increase in our humanitarian efforts and an end to schemes like the baby bonus.

I have even been accused of being racist and anti-family for even raising the population question.

I will let others judge me over many years of public life, but it is certain that if we continue to treat population as a taboo subject, then it will surely open the door to extremists to fill the void.

Population is the elephant in the room that we have ignored for too long. None of the issues we face - climate change, housing, energy, healthcare, our environment - gets easier if population grows out of control. I have never felt more strongly about an issue and I want future generations to enjoy this way of life.

Originally published as Too many people are packed in