THE federal government will not set national population targets because they had not worked in the past and would limit the flexibility of the immigration program, the Population Minister, Tony Burke, said.
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The focus of the government's planned sustainable population strategy would be on ensuring different parts of the country could cope with changes in population rather than on intervening to establish targets.
''In the past, people have come up with targets - they have always been wrong,'' Mr Burke said.
''If targets had been set 20 years ago what would we have known about the resources boom that is going on now?
''The concept of targets, whenever it has been half-way tried, has always fallen over and it is something that I don't see as a particularly helpful policy tool.''
Mr Burke said the critical question was not the overall level of population but where the population was distributed around the country, and tackling regional issues ranging from congestion on the urban fringes to shortages of skilled labour in remote areas.
''Looking at the pressures on different communities around Australia, from Penrith to the Pilbara, demands a much more detailed conversation than dealing with arbitrary targets.''
The government is planning to finalise its sustainable population strategy in April.
Yesterday Mr Burke released three reports commissioned by the government on the impact of population change on the economy, the environment and the quality of life.
The three panels had divergent views on whether population growth encouraged economic prosperity, or posed risks such as forcing housing development to encroach on land for agricultural production.
