EVERY Australian family should be limited to just two children to curb the population explosion, millionaire Dick Smith said yesterday.

He called for a China-like quota on the number of kids, warning the growing burden on our resources was like "a plague of locusts", The Daily Telegraph reported.

Likening high-rise apartments to chicken coops, the former Australian of the Year thanked property developers at an Urban Taskforce population debate for "not lynching" him after he attacked their drive for profits and called for an end to growth addiction.

"It's either going to be forced on us or we are going to plan," Mr Smith said. "I would like to see Australia stabilise at 24 to 25 million.

"I don't see it by force. I see it by saying to parents, 'It's best to have two kids'. I see us having an immigration intake of 70,000 per year."

He said unaffordable land prices had left generations of children stuck in apartments. "We descended from hunter gatherers - not from termites. We are putting our kids into high-rise because we are running out of land.

"We pay $50 million a year for free-range eggs for our bloody chooks to be free range - what about our kids?"

He said population growth had to slow to allow housing to become affordable again.

Mr Smith also called for an end to "stealing resources" from future generations.

"We have to decide - are we like locusts that breed to huge numbers and then die off? Or are we like the majority of other magnificent natural creatures in this country which have lived in balance for millions of years?" he said.

Mr Smith said the economic system was built on "perpetual exponential growth".

"We are addicted to growth. It's like the religion of capitalism but it is a false god," he said

MacroPlan economist Brian Haratsis called Mr Smith alarmist and accused him of using scare tactics.

He said the population debate in Australia had been stolen by "anti-growth people with a Green sentiment".

"We could triple the population of Australia and we wouldn't use much land. Fly from Sydney to Perth and what do you see? Not much."