Australia’s population recently exceeded 23 million people, and shows no sign of slowing. The imperative question we should be asking ourselves at this point is whether we can manage the growth we have, not whether our growth is significant enough.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, an Australian is born every one minute and 44 seconds, one dies every three and a half minutes and every two minutes and 19 seconds our migration population increases by one. This data means that Australia is gaining an extra person every one minute and 23 seconds.

The justifications for Australia’s increasing population are purely economic. It is understood that economic growth requires population growth and a larger population produces a larger market. Many economists encourage growth as they would encourage profit, and the Business Council of Australia has continuously advocated for higher immigration. But is this growth detrimental to our economic well-being?

A study conducted by The Centre for Independent Studies found that big councils believed the financial effect of population growth failed to outweigh the cost of development, with many councils in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia claiming they suffered financially from the effects of population growth.

According to William Bourke, founder of the federally recognised Stable Population Party, economic growth does not require population growth.

“If you look at the top ten, per capita wealth per country, eight countries have a population under 10 million. Those with the lowest per capita wealth are generally the biggest, most densely populated countries, being Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria. This is overwhelming evidence showing more people equals a lower economic well-being.

“Our economy is completely dependent on the environment. The more people you add spreads those resources ever thinner and does not create a higher quality of life. We have the mirage of Australia looking like it has economic growth based on short term, depleting finite resources like mineral wealth. We also have a lot of debt being created, spending money we don’t have,” says Bourke.

Many people compare the vast continent of Australia to other dense countries of a similar size such as the United States, and believe Australia seems under populated by its 23 million people. But according to the population issues committee of the National Population Council, this image is misleading as much of the continent is uninhabitable to humans, and the amount of agricultural land and available water is small compared with the total land area.

Our increasing population has already put a strain on our overcrowded cities – the current home of 91 per cent of Australians – and promises to cause higher traffic congestion, clogged public transport systems, and make housing prices unaffordable if left unchecked. Would more infrastructure accommodating for more people really solve everything?

Bourke argues the evidence shows that in Australia’s case, we live in a finite country and simply adding more infrastructure won’t solve our problems.

“Infrastructure partnerships Australia has told us that we now have an infrastructure deficit of 770 billion dollars because of adding complex infrastructure such as widening freeways, increasing dam walls and building desalination plants. The evidence shows we are unable to pay for it and the increasing tax revenue from more people is not going anywhere near covering the extra cost. We would have to increase taxes to pay for the infrastructure to grow our country.”

The Australian Millennium Ecosystem report states that over the past 50 years, humanity has changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than any comparable time in human history, largely to meet increased demands for resources. These changes will presumably accelerate as Australia attempts to double in size by 2050.

“We look at it from the point of view of stabilising population in order to protect our environment. Population growth multiplies all environmental impact in terms of deforestation, land degradation and overfishing which all converges into a climate disaster for the world,” says Bourke.

Australia’s population is currently growing by more than one million people every three years- this is the size of East Timor. Our government and businesses alike advocate that a soaring population will enjoy a soaring economic profit.

However, the environmental, social and quality of life issues presented by this increase suggest that a stable Australia is a sustainable Australia. Maybe we should reconsider the exhausted slogan ‘populate or perish’- it may be more relevant as ‘populate and perish’.

The stable population party is running in this years 2013 federal election with candidates in various areas, visit their website populationparty.org.au for more information.

Bridget Rollason is a bachelor of journalism student and a member of the upstart editorial team. You can follow her on twitter @didgereidoo.