Australian preparation for population boom "abysmal": expert

CANBERRA, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Australia has done a poor job preparing for a nationwide population boom, a special investigation by the nation's public broadcaster has found.

With the populations of both Melbourne and Sydney expected to top 8 million people by the middle of the century, how the cities deal with that growth has become a key issue for all levels of government.

In 1997, it was projected that Australia's population would not hit 25 million people until approximately 2050 but according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' population clock it is already at 24.85 million.

Most of that boom has occurred in major cities with Melbourne growing by 1 million people between 2006 and 2016, while Sydney's population grew 800,000 and Brisbane and Perth each grew by 500,000.

Innes Wilcox, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Australian Industry Group, said that Australia has done "an abysmal job" preparing for the unprecedented growth.

"You know, there has been really no serious integrated debate around all the key factors that population growth brings to our economy and our national way of life," Wilcox told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Monday.

In 2016, the Grattan Institute estimated that Victoria and New South Wales would have to build an additional 200 schools each to keep up with demand by 2026 while Queensland was not far behind, requiring 197.

James Merlino, Victoria's education minister, said that multi-storey "vertical" schools were the answer for inner-city suburbs.

"The land lots are smaller, so you need to go vertical to cater for the student numbers," Merlino said.

"We need to accommodate 90,000 additional students over the next five years, just incredible enrolment growth." Enditem