Complaining that an increased population would not spread out across the Australian continent but instead concentrate in the narrow fertile strip along the east coast, former NSW Premier and Foreign Minister under the Labor government has made a plea to drastically cut Australia’s migration program.

Media reports did not indicate what type of research or economic modelling Mr Bob Carr based his notions on when he took a swipe at current policies which take in about 190,000 permanent migrants a year.

Mr Carr said the country's population was far greater than "what we need and what we can absorb, environmentally and economically…And it's based on a flawed economic model — that is, we need to build up a domestic population.” Mr Carr's comments came after Australia's population officially hit 24 million shortly after midnight on Tuesday.

Speaking to the media in Sydney, Mr Carr chose to compare Australia to Indonesia stating that, "Our rate of population growth is higher than that of Indonesia, which has got developing-world status.” He made no mention that the median age in Indonesia is about 28 years with life expectancy of 71 years and a fertility rate of 2.47. In Australia the median age about 38 years with life expectancy at 82 years and a fertility rate well under replacement levels and at its lowest levels in 10 years.

According to Treasury statistics, in Australia, the number of people aged between 15 and 64 for every older person has fallen from 7.3 in 1974-1975 to an estimated 4.5 this year. By 2054-55 that number is likely to be 2.7.

A treasury report has noted that, “To maintain Australia’s existing age structure through immigration would require increases in immigration every year — and the increases would need to become progressively larger and larger to take account of the ageing of the migrants themselves.”

The Migration Council of Australia’s independent economic modelling last year indicated that Australia would need to raise migration levels to 250,000 per year in order to support the economy, maintain sustainable GDP levels and remain competitive internationally.