Principles

The Australian Greens believe that:

  1. Australia must contribute to achieving a globally sustainable population.
  2. our environmental impact is not determined by population numbers alone, but by the way that people live.
  3. consumption patterns and levels, distribution of resources, agricultural practices for domestic consumption and export, levels and types of industrial activity, urban design and transport options determine the ecological footprint of a group of people.
  4. there are complex issues involved in population policy, including:
  • women’s rights;
  • unsustainable resource use; and
  • inequitable distribution of wealth and power.
  1. Australia’s population policy should be determined by its commitment to:
  • ecological sustainability;
  • both global and domestic social justice and equity;
  • intergenerational equity;
  • multiculturalism;
  • international human rights obligations; and
  • decent wages and conditions for all workers.
  1. population policy should not be driven by economic goals or to counter the effects of an ageing population.
  2. an Australian population policy must consider the geographical distribution of human settlements rather than just concentrate upon population size at the national level.
  3. Australia has an obligation to accept humanitarian migration including that resulting from climate change.

Goals

The Australian Greens want:

  1. reduction of Australia’s use of natural resources to a level that is sustainable and socially just.
  2. recognition that use of resources in production for export is as damaging to the environment as production for domestic consumption.
  3. human settlements which are:
  • designed and built to minimise environmental harm and maximise social well-being; and
  • located in areas where their ecological impact is minimised.

Measures

The Australian Greens will:

  1. support, through extensive community consultation, a population policy directed towards ecological sustainability in the context of global social justice.
  2. work to achieve a sustainable relationship between humans and the environment by taking action:
  • in Australia, including planning, consultation and a whole of government approach, to improve equity in consumption levels and resource and technology use; and
  • globally, to improve social and economic equity and promote programs that empower women.
  1. implement the 1994 United Nations International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action as endorsed by the Australian Government, by:
  • increasing our contribution to programs that empower women and increase their access to a wide range of safe family planning options; and<
  • increasing our overseas aid budget to 0.7% of GNP by 2010 as recommended by the United Nations, directed to the poorest, which often include women, with a focus on clean water and sanitation, education and high quality accessible health services, including sexual and reproductive health services.
  1. ensure that Australian family planning programs, both domestically and overseas, are adequately funded to deliver services in the context of reproductive health programs which increase the power of girls and women to determine their own reproductive lives, and increase the understanding of men of their reproductive responsibilities.
  2. prepare contingency plans for possible large scale humanitarian migration as a result of climate change.

Authorised and printed by Derek Schild, Australian Greens, 8-10 Hobart Place Canberra 2601