Census 2021: The lucky country needs a bigger Australia ambition

On census night in August last year, Australia’s population had swelled to 25.5 million.

The census shows that migrants from India have overtaken China as the largest source of “new Australians”.

As with the waves of people arriving from southern Europe after 1945 and from Asia after the formal end of the White Australia Policy in 1973, immigration continues to reshape the complexion of the nation – which, as the census also shows, is also becoming less Christian.

The 2021 census shows Australia is becoming less Christian.

By census night in August last year, Australia’s population had swelled to 25.5 million.

But it’s rare for our leaders to speak as glowingly about the immigration that makes multiculturalism possible, let alone about the British and Enlightenment roots of Australia’s success as a migrant-attracting nation.

All these things should now be brought together in a coherent population policy with the explicit goal of attracting more migrants to a bigger nation that will gain the size needed to secure the Australian project