To be sure, there has been a sharp spike in anti-immigration sentiment. A number of polls now show about 55 per cent of Australians say the ‘total number of migrants coming to Australia each year’ is too high. The clear and present danger is that our political leaders lose the social licence to maintain the mass immigration scheme that has been fundamental to our success as a nation. Tried catching a tram in peak hour lately? Credit:Joe Armao. It is time for community leaders to step up and put the case for a high rate of immigration and the celebration of our multicultural diversity as a national strength, not a weakness. A bigger Australia can be better. A bigger Melbourne can be better. Provided government has both hands on the wheel in terms of investment in infrastructure and services, visionary urban land-use planning, and lifting design standards and quality in new buildings.

It is no coincidence that Australia’s record prosperity over the last two decades has coincided with a period of high immigration. As the RBA Governor Philip Lowe pointed out in a speech last week, Australia’s high population growth rate of 1.5 per cent is a basis for optimism about the future of our economy. It has produced a younger, more economically resilient nation. Australia’s immigration program is like a human capital raid on the rest of the world. Other countries expend huge resources on health, education and other services for their children. When you look at the skylines of our major cities there is too much crap that has been built. Credit:Vince Caligiuri Then, just as those children enter young adulthood and their economically productive years they move to Australia where they earn a good income and contribute to our national prosperity. Even better if they come to Australia as international students. Then their tuition fees contribute to one of our biggest export earners, after which they enter the workforce highly skilled and ready to build their own Australian dream.

If you want to tip Australia into recession then put the brakes on immigration. Politicians stoking anti-immigration sentiment should remember that it will be the tradies who work in construction, and who decide the outcome of elections, who will be the first and hardest hit. The rest of the economy will follow shortly thereafter. All of which is not to say people in Melbourne do not have good reasons to be grumpy. I live here too. The roads are congested, public transport is crowded, our daily routines are being disrupted by construction activity. And when you look at the skylines of our major cities there is too much crap that has been built. Managing population growth is a huge challenge. The City of Melbourne’s real time pedestrian data shows the central city is now visited by close to 1 million people every day. In the next 20 years this will rise above 1.4 million a day – that’s an extra 400,000 cups of coffee, extra tram rides, meals and visits to the toilet we need to provide at a standard befitting the world’s most liveable city. But putting a handbrake on immigration and population growth is not the answer. That will only create more problems than it solves. Japan has suffered 30 years of economic paralysis because they did not lift immigration rates while birth rates declined. This has created a social welfare time bomb and a shrinking economy.

Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video What Australia needs is better planning and more investment from a smarter and more activist government. At the moment government decision making is being hindered by population modelling agencies which continuously get population growth predictions woefully wrong. In 2002, the Intergenerational Report forecast our national population would exceed 25 million in 2042. In 2007, the estimate was adjusted to 2028 and in 2015 the estimate was dropped to 2024.

The result is policy makers are left making decisions based on faulty data – governments systematically under invest in infrastructure and services because they invest for a population size that arrives two decades earlier than they had been told. Loading The basis for a bigger and better Australia begins with decisions that use accurate and intelligent "real-time" data rather than out of date historical estimates. This should not be too hard. With smart urban land use planning combined with strong investment in new transport infrastructure and services Melbourne can comfortably house a bigger population. In the City of Melbourne alone there is still 740 hectares of developable land close to the city centre taking in Fishermans Bend, Arden, Macaulay, West Melbourne Waterfront, E-Gate and Dynon.

That is the equivalent of five times the size of the Hoddle Grid or almost 20 per cent of the entire City of Melbourne. With the right planning and built form regulations, these areas can be developed as new suburbs that rival some of the world’s most beautiful cities. In these new areas Melbourne should be aiming to build the Barcelona of the new world. Why should we settle for anything less? In the 2011, The Economist described Australia as the next “Golden State”. They editorialised that with a bit of self-belief we could be the model nation. Seven years on, as we pass the 25 million mark, we should back ourselves and build a bigger and better Australia. Councillor Nicholas Reece is chair of planning for the City of Melbourne. He immigrated to Australia in 1979.