Population a key question for campaigning Australian politicians

Last Updated: Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:37:00 +1000

Australia's political leaders are continuing their campaigning in the lead-up to the August 21 election.

The Australian Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, is campaigning in Melbourne, while the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, is in Sydney's western suburbs.

The leader of Australia's minority Greens party, Bob Brown, says he is confident he will be able to work well with Tony Abbott if the opposition Coalition wins the election.

The Greens are tipped to win enough support to give them the balance of power in the Senate.

Senator Brown says he had a meeting with Mr Abbott soon after he became Opposition leader.

"I saw enough there to know that if he becomes the Prime Minister, I'll be able to talk with him and so will my colleagues - talk with their counterparts in a Coalition cabinet," he said.

Sustainable questions

The Australian Opposition says the Government should explain what it believes is a sustainable population.

Australia currently has a population of around 21 million and the country's immigration intake is a major discussion point during the election campaign.

The Coalition says it will set population growth caps if it wins the election.

But the Deputy Opposition Leader, Julie Bishop, says there's no indication Labor will do the same.

"What's missing from Labor's policy on sustainable population is what they actually mean by sustainable population," she said.

"It's a phrase that's been trotted out all the time - Tony Burke was the Minister for Population, he's now the Minister for Sustainable Population, but his brief is exactly the same."

Foreign policy

The Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has defended her level of foreign policy experience.

The Opposition has repeatedly criticised how Ms Gillard has handled negotiations with East Timor over her asylum seeker plan.

But Ms Gillard says she can handle complex foreign policy issues.

"I'm not going to pretend that I've come to this position with a lifetime in foreign affairs," she said.

"I haven't - that's true. And if you look at some of my predecessors as Prime Minister, obviously Kevin Rudd had a lifetime of experience in Foreign Affairs, John Howard did not. And we could go back through Prime Ministers."