The Wire

Australia’s five-yearly census is fast approaching. At a launch of the initiative to count the country’s population, Treasurer Peter Costello said we all needed to get a little busy and make more Aussies. Treasurer Costello warned that if Australia’s falling birth rate forced the country to turn to increased immigration to bolster the population, the country might face “social division, social disruption and violence” due to an influx of different ethnic groups. He claimed this was the situation being faced in high-immigrant, low-birth rate European countries.