A whole-of-government approach to population policy for Australia

Abstract

The present social and political contexts are such that a population policy is likely for the first time in the country's recent history. The government has indeed signalled a population policy (focused on migrant settlement) will be put forward with haste (Benson 2018). Yet exactly what constitutes an appropriate population policy for contemporary Australia is still yet to be determined. The breadth of population-related issues lends itself to an approach which seeks to embed and contextualise population among wider government business – which requires a whole-of -government, joined-up approach.