DICK SMITH’S POPULATION PUZZLE Program transcript T MS Rear shot of Dick as train goes by in slow motion (Music) MS Rear shot of Dick as he drives his car in traffic DICK SMITH: Oh, traffic. MS Looking out of car windscreen at traffic MS Windscreen and rear view mirror showing Dick‟s reflection Grid lock. MS Looking through side window of car at Dick driving in traffic MS Looking through windscreen at traffic driving in opposite direction DICK VO: Notice anything different about where you live? For most Australians it's never been more crowded. WS Time lapse of people going through ticket stalls at train section, then slows down NEWSREADER: Australia is heading for a population boom. WS Crowds of people By 2050 it looks like there will be 35 million people here, WS Crowds of people and traffic at night that's not far off double what it is now. NEWSREADER: It's MS Traffic moving very slowly official, Sydney is WS Lines of traffic moving very slowly on motorway collapsing under the weight of its own popularity. MS Shots of traffic NEWSREADER: Greater Brisbane, population 2 million, forecast to double by 2056. ECU Dick Smith, Dick‟s glasses show reflection of images DICK VO: We're in the middle of a population boom, the likes of which we haven't seen since the 1950s. B&W Archive footage of people arriving on ships ARCHIVE: Today we are receiving new citizens at a higher rate than ever before in our history. (Music) WS Dick walking through crowded Bangladesh street the DICK VO: We're even outpopulating some of the poorest nations, setting a terrible example in a world already struggling with too many people. In fact, Computer graphic showing Greek columns representing countries and their percentage of growth Australia is the gold medallist in population growth. No other major economy is growing at anything like the pace that we are.
Transcript
DICK SMITH’S POPULATION PUZZLE Program transcript
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MS Rear shot of Dick as train goes by
in slow motion
(Music)
MS Rear shot of Dick as he drives his
car in traffic
DICK SMITH: Oh, traffic.
MS Looking out of car windscreen at
traffic
MS Windscreen and rear view mirror
showing Dick‟s reflection
Grid lock.
MS Looking through side window of car
at Dick driving in traffic
MS Looking through windscreen at
traffic driving in opposite direction
DICK VO: Notice anything different about
where you live? For most Australians it's
never been more crowded.
WS Time lapse of people going through
ticket stalls at train section, then
slows down
NEWSREADER: Australia is heading for a
population boom.
WS Crowds of people By 2050 it looks like there will be 35
million people here,
WS Crowds of people and traffic at
night
that's not far off double what it is now.
NEWSREADER: It's
MS Traffic moving very slowly official, Sydney is
WS Lines of traffic moving very slowly
on motorway
collapsing under the weight of its own
popularity.
MS Shots of traffic NEWSREADER: Greater Brisbane, population
2 million, forecast to double by 2056.
ECU Dick Smith, Dick‟s glasses show
reflection of images
DICK VO: We're in the middle of a
population boom, the likes of which we
haven't seen since the 1950s.
B&W Archive footage of people arriving
on ships
ARCHIVE: Today we are receiving new
citizens at a higher rate than ever before
in our history.
(Music)
WS Dick walking through crowded
Bangladesh street
the DICK VO: We're even outpopulating
some of the poorest nations, setting a
terrible example in a world already
struggling with too many people. In fact,
Computer graphic showing Greek columns
representing countries and their
percentage of growth
Australia is the gold medallist in
population growth. No other major economy
is growing at anything like the pace that
we are.
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
2
MS Time lapse of people going down an
escalator
The boom is quite literally changing the
face of our cities, forcing up property
prices, clogging our roads and exhausting
our countryside.
WS Panning around land of dry, cracked
earth
It started under John Howard.
MCU John Howard giving speech
Super: 29 October 2001
John Howard
Former Prime Minister
Slides to MCU Kevin Rudd on ‟7:30
Report‟
Slides to MCU Julia Gillard on „Today‟
show
JOHN HOWARD SYNC: We will decide who
comes to this country and the
circumstances in which they come.
DICK VO: Grew under Kevin Rudd.
KEVIN RUDD SYNC: I actually believe in a
big Australia.
DICK VO: And keeps climbing under Julia
Gillard.
JULIA GILLARD SYNC: If we still need
skilled migrants then of course we should
enable them to come.
MS Crowds going down stairs at train
station DICK VO: But no-one ever asked you if this is a
good idea.
WS Crowds of people coming down stairs Until now it's never been an election
issue.
ECU Side view of Dick Smith But as I found out it may be just about
the biggest question we could ever ask.
Opening graphics
Dick Smith’s Population Puzzle
(Opening theme music )
WS Hangar doors opening January 2010 ALAN JONES: While I was away a message
appeared on my phone, it was from Dick
Smith. When Dick Smith the former
Australian of the Year starts ringing you
know there's something out there of some
concern.
WS Dick pushing trolley which backs
helicopter out of the hangar
Six months before Julia Gillard becomes
PM
(Music – „Walk into my Soul‟)
WS Dick Smith steering helicopter out
of hangar
DICK VO: Something very strange has been
going on.
MCU Rotor of helicopter turning
WS Helicopter taking off Australia is conducting an unplanned
social experiment that's changing our way
of life.
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
3
Computer-generated graphics looking out
of helicopter windscreen with
population counter in foreground and
people on land growing in numbers,
pulls out to show population covering
Tasmania and then infrastructure images
popping up
Last year our population grew by more than
480,000 people, one-third were born here,
the rest arrived as migrants. That's
almost the equivalent of the State of
Tasmania in just 12 months. Imagine what
we need to keep pace with that - 300
schools, 3 big hospitals, a university,
1,200 police, 190,000 homes. Think of it
as building a big new city every year.
That's what this rate of growth demands.
And of course we are not keeping up.
MCU Ross Gittins
SUPER: Ross Gittins
Economics Editor Fairfax
ROSS SYNC: I wouldn't be at all confident
that we'd have enough food or enough water
or enough roads or enough buses or enough
houses to cope with that, not at all.
(Music)
MS Dick Smith sitting talking with Bob
CarR
SUPER: Bob Carr
Former NSW Premier
BOB SYNC: There are going to be tensions
and problems and lower living standards,
an inferior economy, lower wealth per
head.
MCU Mike Archer
SUPER: Mike Archer
Professor of Science UNSW
MIKE SYNC: We cannot keep going the way
we're going now. It's going to fall apart
around us.
MS Time lapse Dick Smith at train
station amongst crowd
DICK VO: Now I have to admit that
until recently I hadn't thought much about a big Australia. Like most people I
hadn't joined the dots on what's been
happening. I was in for a real shock
MS Dick Smith at Dymocks with Pip, Jen
and Charlie Brown SUPER: February 2010
DICK SYNC: Hello, this is my little
Charlie Brown.
DICK SYNC: I hadn't considered the
Population issue but my daughter Jenny,
Jenny here, phoned me up in about October
and said, “Dad, they talk about
human-induced global warming but they
never talk about the elephant in the room
and I said, "What's that Jen?"
MCU Jenny, Charlie Brown and Pip
watching Dick at Dymocks
SUPER: Jenny Brown
JEN SYNC: Dad, with all this talk about
Human-induced global warming and our carbon emissions why does no-one ever talk about population growth?
MCU Rear shot of Dick talking, looking
out on WS of crowd at Dymocks
DICK SYNC: And I instantly thought how
can I be so dumb?
MCU Jenny
JENNY SYNC: And this time he kind of -
there was a big pause and I think he just
said, “Well I haven't really thought about
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
4
that.”
MCU Rear shot of Dick talking, looking
out on WS of crowd at Dymocks
DICK SYNC: I like to be the thinker of
our family but in this particular case
Jenny was way ahead.
MCU Jenny JENNY SYNC: A couple of days later he
rang me back and he said, “I've been
thinking about what you asked me and
that's a really interesting point that
you've raised and I'm going to explore it
more.”
MCU Dick Smith DICK SYNC: Nothing has hit me more than
to realise that it's been neglected for
generations. Right now we should be making
decisions on population, we should have
the best brains working out what could
happen if we do go to 45 million or indeed
100 million and what advantages we could
have by perhaps keeping the population at
23 or 24 million.
MS Dick walking along corridor at ICM
Super: March 2010
DICK VO: It's time to have a real
conversation about population. So for the
next few months I'm going to make a real
MCU Dick entering auditorium at ICM nuisance of myself giving talks, asking
questions,
MS Dick and others walking to front of
auditorium, audience standing
to see if I can get the debate kick
started.
MCU Pip seated in audience DICK SYNC: I was born
MCU Dick giving oration at ICM
in the Sydney suburb of Roseville not far
from here and I was
B&W Photograph of Dick as a child
holding a hose
what you'd call a free-range kid. As you
know battery kids live in, you know, home
units and high rise, free-range kids
B&W Photograph of Dick as a child on
swing
have backyards and climb over the fences.
I had a cubby house in the backyard, a
swing tied to the tree. My dad actually
had a vegetable garden.
Archive footage of a milkman delivering
milk
DICK VO: Now call me old fashioned but
this was a pretty wonderful
Archive footage of kids playing cricket
in park
way to grow up.
(Music)
MCU Dick Smith as he approaches his old
house
DICK SYNC: This is the house I lived in
for the first five years and it's the
same, got a bit bigger.
MCU Dick looking at the front door That's the same door.
MS Rear shot of Dick walking down
hallway of house
Wow, hello, everyone.
WOMAN SYNC: Hi, Dick.
MS Rear shot of Dick walking towards
DICK SYNC: This is beautiful. Now look at
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
5
the back of the house followed by
current owner
this tree here,
MS Looking up to canopy of tree I used to have a cubby house in it.
MS Dick looking up at tree with kids BOY SYNC: We've still got a couple of
nails.
DICK SYNC: There still is?
BOY SYNC: Somewhere.
DICK SYNC: Can you see them up there? Do
you climb it?
BOY SYNC: Rarely. No.
DICK SYNC: I bet you do.
CU B&W photos of Dick‟s family at the
house, Dick pointing to photo
This is the front stairs
MCU Dick showing boys the B&W photos and this is going into your front door.
B&W Photo of Dick‟s family on front
stairs of house
Look, that's me there.
WS Dick walking over to hedge and looks
through
I want to have a look at the fence.
MCU Dick holding back branches of head
to show old wooden fence
It's still there. That's the fence I used
to climb over all the time. I used to take
out two palings when
B&W Photo of Dick as a child sitting in
garden holding a kitten
Mum and Dad didn't know so I could sneak
through into the backyard and we all used
to play cubby houses in the backyard.
(Music)
Archive footage of couple looking at
front of house
DICK SYNC: My mum was a home mother
Archive footage of family inside house and my dad was a salesman and in those
days they'd saved up enough money for a
deposit for a house
WS Dick speaking at ICM
and a salesman could buy a house at
Roseville. It's interesting because these
days
WS Dick‟s former home in background,
kids playing cricket along path and
Dick looking to camera in foreground,
computer-generated real estate sign
showing price then and now
I just worked out it's about six times
more expensive compared to the average
wage to buy a house.
Archive footage of boy tipping water
over girl in front yard, man and woman
sitting on veranda
ROSS SYNC: We haven't been building
enough houses to meet the growth in the
population,
MCU Ross Gittins particularly when we are force feeding the
growth in the population by having high
levels of immigration. All of those people
who come to Australia have got to find
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
6
somewhere to live. If we're not building
enough houses that will manifest itself
just in pushing up the price.
WS Aerial shot looking down at
roundabout, pulling out and showing
residential area
(Music)
DICK VO: If young families can't afford
to live anywhere near
EWS Aerial shot showing large
residential area
the centre of town, our cities will keep
spreading beyond the horizon.
WS View from windscreen of new estate DICK VO: 40 kilometres from the centre of
Melbourne
MCU Dick sitting in car looking out
window at new estate
Manor Lakes is the city's newest suburb.
WS Shots of new houses There's no actual lake here yet but the
pioneers have already arrived and soon
25,000 more will follow.
MCU Panning down sales poles to display
homes
DICK VO: Manor Lakes is managed by one of
the country's
WS Panning L-R from display homes to
Dick and Bert Dennis walking along
footpath
most successful developers, Bert Dennis.
He has more than 50 years property
experience and this is one of his biggest
projects yet.
WS Panning R-L from display homes to
street
And with the population set to double
WS Labourer planting tree on block of
land
it's a gamble that's bound to pay off.
WS Playground in background, newly
planted gardens in foreground Bert agrees houses are getting too expensive and he blames governments for not
releasing enough land.
MS Rear shot of Dick and Bert walking
down hallway of new home
DICK SYNC: What you're saying is that one
of the reasons
MS View up hallway then entering
bedroom
for the very high cost of land is that
actually there's not enough land available
and people -
MS Dick and Bert
Super: Bert Dennis
Dennis Family Corp
BERT SYNC: Not enough land available.
DICK SYNC: And people are actually
stopping development because they want to
keep their house with the block of land
and so forth. Wouldn't another way of
getting the prices down is not to have an
increase in number of people buying? In
other words, if you have less buyers the
prices will come down?
BERT SYNC: Certainly, if you stopped the
immigration rate no doubt the whole
MS Panning from fence to new house being
constructed
industry would collapse but the industry
is somewhere around about 9% or 10% of the
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
7
Australian economy.
DICK SYNC: So it's a lot easier with
MS Dick and Bert capitalism when we've got population
growth, isn't it?
BERT SYNC: Yes.
WS Panning from ground to workmen (Music)
DICK VO: It seems to me as if we've got
ourselves
WS Panning L-R along site where workmen
are working
into a trap. Prices are going up because
of pressure from immigration, yet if
immigration was reduced the building
WS Workmen on site industry faces collapse. No-one seems to
think that there's any
WS Landscapers working at front of
display homes
alternative to the growth treadmill and
our governments are always playing catch
up.
B&W Archival footage on Australia‟s
shortage of people
MAN: Australia has known falling values in
wages and high cost of living and on top
of this a desperate shortage of houses,
more than a quarter of a million urgently
needed.
EWS Aerial shot of city skyline DICK SYNC: We measure the success of a
government by the increase in the gross
domestic product,
CU Dick Smith
GDP, and if it goes down oh, we better
throw that government out. So you have a
prime minister saying “I've got to have
growth, I've got to have growth.” Well
we‟ll bring more immigrants in, we'll
expand the population and no-one has
actually said to the Prime Minister “Look,
we're not stupid, we'd actually be
prepared to have a lower increase in gross
domestic product as long as we're better
off as individuals” and we can do that
with less Australians.
WS Dick walking past portraits hanging
on wall in Parliament House
Super: Parliament House
Canberra 2010
DICK VO: If I want to find out what's
really going on the answers should be in
this place.
WS Looking up at glass ceiling in
Parliament House
Around here everyone seems to welcome a
big Australia. Politicians love the thought of
more taxpayers. It's always been that way and if they have
their way it always will.
MS Dick Smith meeting Chris Evans
MCU Chris Evan
DICK SYNC: Senator, Dick Smith.
CHRIS SYNC: Chris, how are you?
DICK SYNC: Good to see you.
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
8
Super: Chris Evans
Immigration Minister
CHRIS SYNC: Nice to meet you.
DICK SYNC: Come through.
CHRIS SYNC: We are a migrant country,
we're probably the greatest migrant
country in the world and we're going to
continue to need migrants.
B&W Archival footage of adult education
class
MAN: Australia's immediate population
target is 20 million people. We cannot get
that number overnight but we can get it
quickly by planned immigration.
WS Time lapse people on escalators at
shopping centre
(Music)
DICK VO: We're still looking for the
quick fix.
WS Time lapse people coming through
ticket gates at train station
Net Migration 2009
277,700
You think there would be a plan that would
tell us how big we could grow but the man
in charge of the numbers says that's
someone else's department.
DICK: Do you think that there is a limit
to the number of people Australia can
support and feed?
MS Dick Smith and Chris Evans CHRIS SYNC: Well, that's more a question
for an agricultural economist or someone,
I suppose, but clearly food security is a
big part of the issue, water's a big part
of the issue, carbon pollution reduction
is a big part of the issue. But Australia
is a large country, we have one of the
lowest population per kilometre ratios of
any country in the world and we have an
awful lot of intellectual capability, it
seems to me, to adapt. So I'm not one of
those who thinks some sort of arbitrary
figure determined by government is a
solution.
MS Dick leaving office and walking down
corridor
MAN: So Dick, what did you think of that?
DICK SYNC: Well it's obvious that there's
no plan.
MS Dick walking down corridor Here you have the Minister for Immigration
and he's actually got not a plan or no
idea on the maximum number of people
Australia can actually sustain. Amazing.
(Music)
EWS Dick walking through foyer at
Parliament House
DICK VO: Not that the Opposition has a
plan either.
WS Tony Abbott running through foyer They're all over the place. Tony Abbott
says he welcomes high immigration.
MCU Tony Abbott at conference
NEWSREADER: The Opposition Leader used an
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
9
Super: Melbourne
January 26, 2010
Australia Day speech in Melbourne to
tackle
MS Tony Abbott getting up to speak
Super: Melbourne
January 26, 2010
population policy and flag his support for
a larger migrant intake.
TONY SYNC: My instinct
MCU Tony Abbott at podium
Super: Tony Abbott
Opposition Leader
is to extend to as many people as possible
the freedom and benefits of life in
Australia.
Footage ABC News – Story: Mixed Message
NEWSREADER SYNC: The Opposition Leader
Tony Abbott has triggered a new debate on
immigration suggesting the country should
throw its doors open to more migrants.
DICK VO: But then his party announced a
policy that says precisely the opposite.
Footage ABC News – Story: Growing
Pains
Super: April 6, 2010
NEWSREADER SYNC: The Federal Opposition
is hardening its stance against population
growth and has declared Australia's total
yearly intake of migrants is out of
control.
(Music)
Still photos Dick Smith talking to Bob
Brown
DICK VO: Even my old friend Bob Brown's
been quiet on the subject for fear of
offending powerful interest groups.
MS Dick Smith talking to Bob Brown,
zooms in to MCU Bob Brown
Super: Bob Brown
Leader of the Greens
DICK SYNC: Why don‟t you kick up a fuss
as the Greens, we hardly hear you about
it?
BOB SYNC: Well, I'll take responsibility
for that because I can tell you that the
single most common question I get in
public forums out of the blue is about
population. I bring it into this place and
you run straight into a wall of putty. It
is - the question there really is why
isn't the population itself, why aren't
the people of Australia insisting that
their politicians raise this issue and
deal with it? Why don't they vote for
people who do raise the issue? Why is the
media so frightened to take up the issue
of population? We've really got to get out
of that mindset.
MS Angry crowd outside building DICK VO: Bob's right. Politicians don't
want
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
10
MCU Angry crowd outside building debate about population.
MCU Man at protest
MAN SYNC: I don't want to see them here.
MCU Woman at protest WOMAN SYNC: Come to Australia, you should
live like an Australian.
WS Panning protest crowd outside
building
DICK VO: It raises too many difficult
Zooming out from picture of baby to
show Dick and two ladies each holding a
baby
questions about fertility and immigration.
They would much rather shut the discussion
down.
MCU Anthony Albanese
Super: Anthony Albanese
Minister for Infrastructure and
Transport
ANTHONY SYNC: I think Dick Smith should
stay out of people's bedrooms.
MS Dick meeting Anthony Albanese at
Parliament House, Anthony Albanese
walking off
DICK SYNC: Dick Smith.
ANTHONY SYNC: G'day, mate, how are you
going?
DICK SYNC: Good to see you.
ANTHONY SYNC: How you going?
DICK SYNC: I'm making a documentary on
population.
ANTHONY SYNC: Good on you.
DICK SYNC: So do you want to see me next
week or something?
ANTHONY SYNC: Yeah, yeah, we've rung.
DICK SYNC: Rightio, next week I think it
is.
ANTHONY SYNC: Come around, mate.
KELVIN SYNC: We all know the world has
plenty of problems, it staggers
MS Kelvin Thompson giving speech in
Parliament
me that so often we ignore the elephant in
the room - increasing population.
Panning to ECU side view of Kelvin
Thompson
(Music)
DICK VO: There's just one bloke in
politics with the courage to speak out,
even though it
WS Kelvin Thompson sitting at desk gets him into trouble with his colleagues
-
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
11
CU Kelvin Thompson at this desk Labor backbencher Kelvin Thompson.
KELVIN SYNC: All of the problems that we
see now,
MS Kelvin Thompson speaking to Dick
Smith
Super: Kelvin Thompson
Labor MP
things like food prices, housing
affordability, traffic congestion,
overcrowded concrete jungles, carbon
emissions, all of these things come back
ultimately to population.
WS Kelvin Thompson in office, man
sitting at desk
DICK VO: I've become a Kelvin Thompson
disciple.
KELVIN SYNC: In my view
MS Kelvin Thompson speaking in
Parliament
it isn't so much a problem as the problem.
DICK VO: He's urging a cut in our
immigration levels to their historic
average of around 70,000 migrants per
year.
Photos of babies, pulls out to show
Peter Costello surrounded by babies
And dropping the wasteful baby bonus that
costs us nearly $1.5 billion a year.
MS Kelvin Thompson speaking to Dick
Smith
DICK SYNC: I mean what you're saying just
sounds so obvious that it seems impossible
to me that with all of our leaders that
they don't agree with you. What's going
on?
KELVIN SYNC: Well I think the issue is
that business in general and property
developers in particular have been pushing
governments and political parties and
politicians hard over the years for
maximum population outcomes, maximum
migration levels and they have a lot of
influence in our political system courtesy
of campaign donations.
MS Panning up from ground floor of
multistorey building to top
(Music – „Little Boxes‟)
WS Panning R-L down from apartment
building to the construction of more
apartment buildings
DICK VO: So, if it's not the politicians
in charge is it big business pulling the
strings? If that's the case we're in
MS Apartment building big trouble.
MS Looking up at apartment building Harry Trigaboff
MCU Rear shot of Harry Trigaboff
looking out over city view
is the biggest property developer in the
country and for him a big Australia is
never big enough.
HARRY SYNC: I'd like to see
MCU Harry Trigaboff 100 million because I believe we'll have
many things to do here besides drilling
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
12
Super: Harry Trigaboff
Meriton Apartments
holes and selling coal. I mean our
agriculture has to be huge, our
desalination must be fantastic, our rivers
must flow the right way, I mean it will
all have to be developed.
WS Panning R-L over multiple apartment
buildings
DICK VO: If Harry has his way, we'll be
concreting over
WS Aerial shot of national parks our national parks to make room.
HARRY SYNC: Nowhere in the world do you
have
MCU Harry Trigaboff
parks in the middle of the city, that's
what we have here and they're huge parks
so if we want the city to be efficient
then we have to make the parks smaller.
WS Looking down at national parks
through helicopter floor
(Music)
DICK SYNC: It's all been kept secret.
MCU Dick Smith It's amazing people say “Oh, don't talk
about population, you will be declared a
racist” and I said, “What's it got to do
with racism? It's nothing to do with it.”
MS „On Air‟ sign on wall ALEX: 1300 681 666 Dick Smith
CU Instrument panel
Super: Alex Elcan 666 ABC Canberra
says it's time to have a discussion about
this, it's the elephant in the room that's
not talked about.
MCU Dick Smith in radio interview at
666 ABC
ALEX SYNC: Are you comfortable though
with the immigration debate and this has
Australians of various skin
WS Looking into studio where Dick in
having an interview at 666 ABC, rear
shot of radio workers in foreground
colour being fronted by other Australians
with T-shirts like
MS Dick and radio interviewer in studio “F off we're full” and “We grew here you
flew here”. How do you tackle this issue
and avoid the tag of that kind of ugly
racism?
DICK SYNC: Well it's absolutely nothing
to do with racism if I asked for our
immigration to come down to 70,000,
obviously on a totally non-discriminatory
way. Personally I believe our humanitarian
intake which is very low, I believe that
should double. That will have no
measurable difference in our population
but
ECU Instrument panel
it has nothing to do with
MS Crowds of people racism at all. Why would you want to bring
people here if they can't have a good life
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
13
in the future?
DICK SYNC: By the way can I just ask
MS Dick at podium addressing meeting
Super: Australia Institute
Canberra March 10, 2010
you something, I've given what people
would call a controversial speech, that we
should have a plan for population in
Australia. If you agree with me put up
your hand.
WS Panning around room showing audience
putting up their hands and then
lowering them
Is there anyone who disagrees? Oh, come
on.
Graphics
Two days after Dick’s Visit to Canberra
The Greens call for
An inquiry into Australia’s population
The Opposition initially supports them
Then backflipped
Footage from ABC News Breakfast –
Virginia Trioli
VIRGINIA SYNC: The population of
Australia is projected to reach 36 million
by 2050 but the Greens say the nation
can't sustain that many people. Speaking
earlier on ABC News Breakfast demographer
Bernard Salt said Australia's character
would change if it cut immigration.
MCU Bernard Salt on ABC News Breakfast
with super of Population Growth,
Bernard Salt, Demographer
BERNARD SYNC: We are an immigrant nation,
have been for 100 years and I think we
will be for another 100 years and it gives
us our sort of can do, young, vital,
vibrant society.
DICK VO: I'm keen to meet this Bernard
Salt. No-one does more boosting for a big
Australia than Bernard. The media always
call him a demographer but he isn't. He's
got a history degree and usually they
forget to mention he's a partner for the
multinational consulting firm KPMG.
MS Dick coming up escalator to foyer of
Property Council of Australia
convention
(Music)
DICK SYNC: It's interesting I'm told that
a good public
MS Dick Smith addressing convention speaker always tells an audience what they
want to hear and that's going to be a bit
difficult today, I can tell you.
WS Function room where convention is
held, tables and stage
DICK VO: Bernard's addressing the
Property Council of Australia and they've
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
14
Super: Brisbane March 5, 2010
MCU Panning up sign of „The Great
Growth Debate‟
let me give a talk too. Believe me, they
don't get much more pro growth
WS Panning from audience to Dick on
stage
than this.
DICK SYNC: But most people know that one
day we'll reach a limit in the population
carrying capacity of the finite world.
MCU Woman in audience Not all people, of course. My friend
Bernard Salt
MCU Dick‟s shadow on red board in front
of curtain
sent me an email and I'll read it to you.
“Hi, Dick, I'm not clear on
MCU Rear shot of Dick as he addresses
audience
what you mean by the statement that we
cannot have growth always.
MCU Dick on stage at podium Are you an advocate of nil growth? That
Australia's population should stabilise?
If this is the case then I cannot support
that point of view.”
Footage of „The Nation with David
Speers‟ – Dick Smith and Bernard Salt
as participants
DICK SYNC: For a start one day even
Bernard has to admit when we've got 10
billion in Australia, one day he's going
to say enough's enough we actually have to
run our economy –
WOMAN SYNC: 10 billion you reckon?
DICK SYNC: Well we have to say it one day.
BERNARD SYNC: Let's clarify this.
DICK VO: Bernard salt is the one always
warning us that we need new immigrants to
pay the pensions of the retiring baby
boomers.
MCU Bernard Salt
Super: Bernard Salt
KPMG Partner
BERNARD SYNC: And the only way that we
can fund the baby boomers in their number
and in their expectations of lifestyle is
by growing the tax base. Now we can either
ask generation X and generation Y to pay
more tax which is not going to be very
popular or we can attract more taxpayers
and that is the basis to the big
Australia. That is why I think we are
pursuing big Australia.
MS Audience members DICK SYNC: There's an ageing population
MCU Dick Smith on stage so let's get more young people, immigrants
in, who will be paying taxes and working.
The only thing is that
MCU Woman in audience huge bubble of 2.1% last year,
MCU Tanya Plibersek on stage one of the highest
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
15
MCU Dick Smith on stage
increases in the world, incredibly high,
that then gets old so then no doubt
someone says let's get more people in to
solve that problem.
WS Time lapse rear view of students
walking along path
(Music)
BERNARD SYNC: We drag taxpayers in in
their 20s, they don't get sick,
MCU Bernard Salt
they don't want an aged pension and they
pay tax for 40 years, it's a short-term,
stop gap solution to the tax issue we have
with retirement of the baby boomers.
(Music)
DICK VO: But one of Australia's
MS Dick walking with Ross Gittins in
office
most respected economic commentators isn't
buying it.
ROSS SYNC: Increased immigration is
actually
MCU Ross Gittins
Super: Ross Gittins
Economics Editor Fairfax
not a very satisfactory way to cope with
the ageing of the population. I think, by
the way, that the ageing of the population
is an exaggerated problem,
MCU Dick Smith especially in Australia. Our pensions are
means tested and they're flat rate,
MCU Ross Gittins doesn't matter what you used to earn, if
you're eligible for the pension you get
whatever it is, you know, $300 a week or
whatever the figure is, everyone gets the
same and that's not a lot of money.
MS Older lady pushing walking frame
along footpath
ROSS: We're much getter off to face it,
WS Foyer of building with elderly
people
I think, than take all the extra costs
that are
MCU Panning from older man‟s feet up as
he walks along beach
associated with letting in lots more
people
MCU Ross Gittins when we can't adequately supply the
infrastructure for the people we've
already got.
WS Ocean liner on harbour in city at
night time
DICK VO: Everyone's always worrying that
Australia's an ageing society. It's as if
we
WS Panning L-R from Harbour Bridge at
night to windows of Dick‟s apartment
showing him lying on the floor playing
with his grandkids
oldies give nothing back to the community.
Economists don't value the huge
contribution older people make in
volunteering and in helping out.
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
16
MS Dick with his grandkids in lounge
room floor
DICK SYNC: So how old is Charlie Brown?
BOY SYNC: Only 1.
MCU Charlie Brown on floor DICK SYNC: Only 1.
DICK VO: And while the costs of crime are
added to the GDP,
MCU Dick and Charlie Brown looking after the grand kids doesn‟t
count.
DICK SYNC: Are you eating the frog?
(Music)
MCU Ron Bloom in office working on
computer
DICK VO: If we're really so worried then
we can do
MS Dick walking through car park a whole lot more to encourage older
Australians to contribute their wisdom and
experience.
MS Dick enters shed and meets Ron Bloom
Super: Ron Bloom
Inkredible Inks
DICK SYNC: G'day.
DICK VO: People like Ron Bloom, he's 74
and has no intention of slowing down.
DICK SYNC: Someone's told me that you
basically were thrown on the scrap heap,
which is normal when you're 65, but you
started your own business?
RON SYNC: I did, I did. Yes, I got tired
of doing nothing and I thought everybody
has to keep going because otherwise you
age too quickly.
DICK VO: Ron didn't feel like waiting
around to pickle.
(Music)
WS Shot of moving through shelves of
storage area of Inkredible Inks
WS Panning R-L from storage area to
office where Ron is seated at desk
DICK VO: So he started a successful
printer supply company, sold it and got
himself re-employed by the new owners.
CU Ron working at computer DICK SYNC: Now tell me, you have had
MS Dick and Ron Bloom talking a career in computers so you've got good
knowledge but at 65 when you went to
Centrelink you couldn't actually get a
job, is that because employers just write
off people who are in their 60s?
RON SYNC: Yes. You see the funny thing is
that when you're in your 60s they think oh
god, he may not last long but they don't
realise that a 25-year-old also may only
be there for six months, in fact more
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
17
likely. So yeah, this is the thing. So
yeah, I don‟t know why they look at it
that way, unfortunately, because there's a
lot of knowledge up there in these 55
plus-year-olds what a shame, what a waste.
CU Instrument panel RADIO AD: Richard Glover‟s
MS Dick Smith entering Studio 221 at
radio station
Drive…
Well hello, Mr Fancy Pants.
..on 702 ABC Sydney.
DICK SYNC: Richard, I think it's all
downhill from now on,
WS Looking into studio with Dick and
Richard Glover
Super: Richard Glover 702 ABC Sydney
other than a few wealthy capitalists who
will make money from growth.
MCU Dick Smith
At the moment 22 million, that's divided
amongst the incredible wealth of this
country. Go to 44 million and everyone's
going to be worth half
MS Back view of Dick in foreground,
Richard Glover in background
as much. Look at Sydney now, it's just -
MS Dick Smith and Pru Goward you can't drive, you can't move, the
hospitals, in the '50s you could get into
hospital now you can wait two years some
people are waiting because we haven't kept
up and everyone says how can we handle all
these people?
WS Crowds of people in city street Why doesn't someone say let's not have all
this huge 36 million, let's actually have
a plan, an idea.
(Music)
MCU Dick in cockpit of plane flying DICK: I suppose people
MCU Looking out of plane window at
clouds
could say look, here am I with my wealth
telling poor people look, this is
CU Plane steering column
what you should be doing but it's actually
not that. If I said nothing
MCU Dick in cockpit of plane with the growth that's going on I'm going
to make more and more money until the day
I die but what I'm concerned about is my
children and grandchildren, just normal
Australians, and
MCU Dick Smith in shed
I‟d want to be known, I'd rather die being
known as someone who stood up and said it
how it was and tried to do something
rather than just made more and more money
and died incredibly wealthy and meant my
kids flew first class everywhere.
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
18
MS Dick leaving hotel and getting in
taxi
(Music)
DICK SYNC: I'm Dick Smith.
CHRIS: Hello, Dick, I'm Chris Adams.
MS Rear shot of Dick and taxi driver in
taxi
Christos Adamopolous.
DICK SYNC: Do you know what, whenever I
jump into a taxi and I hear a driver with
a different accent I always say “Tell me
your adventure story “because I'm supposed
to be an adventurer but people who come to
this country they are the adventurers,
wonderful, wonderful.
WS Shots of houses while driving along
WS Taxi driving along road DICK: Now do you think that it's a good
idea to get more people?
CHRIS SYNC: I reckon so. We have a huge
country.
MCU Chris Adams in taxi
Super: Christos Adamopoulos
We can't have all this beautiful real
estate from one end to another with so
much wealth to harvest from sea, air,
minerals and the rest of it and there's
only a handful of us.
MCU Chris Adams in taxi And we do need people otherwise somebody
might come in and eat us alive.
MS Looking in at Dick and Chris in taxi
as they‟re driving
(Music)
MAN: The need for more
B&W Archive footage showing maps and
military training
Australians is obvious. The old world
speaks of the troubled Far East. For us,
it is the very near north. Teeming
millions are on our doorstep while we
Australians are so few.
DICK VO: Now one big part of the
population puzzle is defence. For years
we've been warned that others want to get
their hands on Australia's wealth. We need
to populate or perish.
BERNARD SYNC: The Australian nation and
people
EWS Bernard Salt and Dick walking
should be very aware of strategic security
issues and I don't think the average Joe
is.
MS Bernard Salt and Dick walking I think at the upper most level in
business, upper most level in government
that it‟s at the back of their mind but I
think the average Australian needs to
realise that we have an extraordinary
asset here that does need to be protected.
B&W Archive footage showing maps and MAN: Any attempts by densely populated
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
19
military training Asia to export surplus people might raise
a few problems for Australia.
DICK VO: Now I don't know much about
security issues so I thought
WS Dick and Peter Cosgrove talking in
kitchen
I'd seek an expert opinion.
MS Dick and Peter Cosgrove
Super: Peter Cosgrove
Former Chief of the Defence Force
PETER SYNC: Well I don't agree with that
argument for, you know, populate or
perish, you know, double the size against
some kind of amorphous threat. Really the
thing that we need for our defence is to
be absolutely smart about the way we do
it. Diplomacy first and then behind that a
defence force which can do the things it
needs to defend our sovereignty in a smart
way. It doesn't rely on numbers, it
actually relies on very smart people and
the wealth to put the right kit in their
hands.
MCU Peter Cosgrove So simply doubling our population is
irrelevant in terms of making us a more
viable defence force.
EWS Panning from ocean to beach with
computer-generated buildings popping up
along coastline
DICK VO: Of course it's theoretically
possible to double our population and pack
in a dozen cities along the Australian
coast. Sure we have the physical space but
what would be the gain? And more
importantly, what would we have to give
up?
WS Digger on building site
DICK VO: The push for population is
already pitting
WS Citizens protest walk citizens against their government.
EWS Looking down on protesters Super:
Ku-ring-gai Council Sydney
Public Meeting
It's trench warfare from one council to
the next.
MS Man in audience at meeting
Super: Ku-ring-gai Council Sydney
Public Meeting
MAN SYNC: Who are you answerable to?
DICK VO: And I didn't have to look far to
find a skirmish.
WS Audience at meeting MAN SYNC: Who are you?
WS Councillors at table on stage WOMAN SYNC: On their commitment.
DICK VO: This is
MCU Kerry Bedford on stage
my old backyard on Sydney's North Shore.
Desperate to
WS Security guards walking to front of
room in meeting
squeeze in more people the State
Government has taken away planning control
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
20
from the local council.
MS Rear shot of man standing up
addressing councillors, pans to
audience
MAN SYNC: Are you telling me that this is
a real –
DICK VO: It's easy to dismiss opponents
of change as selfish NIMBYs just out to
protect their property values.
WS Pans from apartment building being
constructed to house next door
But imagine if this happened to you.
B&W Photo of man and woman In Pymble a 96-year-old woman refused to
sell her home to developers.
WS Panning from home to apartment
building under construction
So they simply built the development
around her.
DICK SYNC: How many units are there all
together?
ANGELA SYNC: 143 on
MS Dick and Angela
Super: Angela Harvey
Owner’s carer
this side development and down here will
be 25 but it's a horse shape.
DICK SYNC: So that's over 160 units where
there was about 4 our 5 houses.
ANGELA SYNC: 6 houses.
DICK SYNC: Right, 6 houses and I mean has
the roads been upgraded from Sydney?
ANGELA: No, no road upgrade, no public
WS Angela and Dick on balcony, digger
in foreground
transport upgrade. The Pymble station
really is in the original condition, I
think.
MS Dick and Angela Very, very little infrastructure.
(Music)
MS Pans L-R from window showing
construction to bed with belongings
laid out
DICK VO: When developers come calling
MCU Belongings on bed there's not much you can do.
WS Looking up to crane ANGELA SYNC: They sent a letter saying 14
days see you in court and
MCU Angela
I had to take - I had to take counsel on
that and they said look, really, you can't
stop them
WS Angela and Dick on balcony, digger
in foreground
from the Neighbouring Lands Act and they
will get what they want.
DICK VO: Can't this happen to anyone
MS Dick and Angela
in Australia?
ANGELA SYNC: Totally and that's what
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
21
people need to see. Come and look here and
see 8 storeys there, 6 storeys on the
other side and at the back.
WS Dick in helicopter looking down at
Sydney and harbour
RADIO: 2GB.
ALAN JONES: Now we don't have enough
water, we don't have enough land. We've
already changed the face of Ku-ring-gai
and Dee Why.
MS Looking through floor of helicopter
to land below
If you're going to have an average annual
arrival in this country of about 500,000
people shouldn't you be asked to submit
MS Looking through floor of helicopter
to traffic
an environmental plan as to what this
might mean for the country?
DICK: You're absolutely spot on. Our
Prime Minister
MCU Dick Smith on telephone
didn't go to the election saying “I'm
going to have record immigration levels”,
there was no discussion at all. And by the
way, no-one's allowed to talk about it
because they'll say oh, you're racist. Now
I am not racist, I love the fact that
people come from all around the world.
MS Looking through floor of helicopter
to land below
But what's the use of coming here if their
lifestyle, you end up with so many people
you end up with the same problems they've
come from.
ALAN JONES: That's right and yet we've
had the largest 3-year increase in
Australia's population during Mr Rudd's
first term.
DICK: I can tell
MCU Dick Smith on telephone you most Australians what we identify with
Australia is that we don't have a lot of
people, we love that fact and I can't
believe that we don't have a right to say
we want to keep it that way.
MS Looking through floor of helicopter
to land below
ALAN JONES: Hang in there, Dick Smith.
There we are.
RADIO: 2GB Traffic.
MS Looking through floor of helicopter
to roads
Traffic is slow north bound up to the top
Ryde area.
WS Dick Smith and woman speaking to
television crew
MAN SYNC: This is very un-Australian.
MS Rear view of cameraman and
interviewer talking to Dick
DICK SYNC: And then I don't want them so
we have
MS Side shot of Dick Smith and woman
speaking to television crew
to knock our houses with
MCU Interviewer
backyards down.
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
22
MS Interviewer talking to Dick MAN SYNC: And this property here is zoned
for a 5-storey building.
WS Dick Smith and woman speaking to
television crew
DICK SYNC: I actually blame our
politicians.
MS Dick Smith talking to interviewers No, look, I'm not concerned about
criticism at all. I'm not being an Asian
provocateur.
‟60 Minutes‟ Opener
MCU Dick Smith DICK SYNC: The crime rate will go up, the
health will go down, all of those problems
caused by too many people. It's so stupid.
WS Dick Smith and Bob Carr walking
along footpath
DICK SYNC: So Bob, how do you think the
campaign's going?
BOB SYNC: I think there‟s was a real
shift in public opinion. I think, you
know, the advocates of high immigration
are now on the defensive.
MCU Looking over the shoulder of woman
at newspaper article by Dick Smith
DICK: Basically every newspaper
CU Dick Smith by-line on newspaper
article
every day has got something about
population.
CU Woman reading newspaper on train BOB: The country wants to have a say in
it.
MS View from train window
MS Pip walking over to helicopter DICK SYNC: What's happening, Pip?
PIP SYNC: Time to leave.
DICK SYNC: Right,
MCU Dick getting into helicopter in I get.
MCU Pip doing up belt in helicopter PIP SYNC: I think he could win this one
MS Pip Smith
Super: Pip Smith
and I know for an absolute fact that he
will do everything he can for as long as
it takes so he does win.
MS Dick sitting in lounge watching
„Insiders‟ on TV
It wouldn't surprise me if Dick changed
the policy of the
MCU Dick sitting in lounge Government on population.
MAN: When the
MS Dick sitting in lounge watching
„Insiders‟ on TV
projections came out about how Australia's
population over
MCU „Insider‟ panellist the next 40 years was going to go from 22
million
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
23
MS Dick sitting in lounge watching
„Insiders‟ on TV
to 36 he went on - this is in October on
the „7:30 Report‟ and said…
MCU Kevin Rudd on „7:30 Report‟ KEVIN RUDD SYNC: I actually believe in a
big Australia.
MS Dick sitting in lounge watching
„7:30 Report‟ on TV
I make no apology for that. I actually
think it's good news that our population
is growing.
MAN SYNC: When that didn't go down too
well
MCU „Insider‟ panellist he went on the „7:30 Report‟ again at the
end of January and said…
MS Dick sitting in lounge watching
„7:30 Report‟ on TV
KEVIN RUDD SYNC: I don't have a view on
that to be quite honest.
MCU Kevin Rudd on „7:30 Report‟ This is simply the reality we are now
dealing with.
MS Dick sitting in lounge watching
„7:30 Report‟ on TV
DICK SYNC: Look, I just can't believe
that he's our prime minister and he's
saying he doesn't have a view on it 36
million. At least I think it's a move
forward because a few months before he was
saying that he supported a big Australia
of 36 million. Now he's telling us he
doesn't have a view on it. Well maybe we,
the people who vote, can give him a view.
Graphics
ANU Survey
Do you want a bigger population?
31% yes 69% no
(Music)
WS Students and Dick entering radio
studio
Super: Madonna King 612 ABC Brisbane
MADONNA: Dick Smith he needs to
introduction, does he? He's here next for
MCU Panning R-L along 612 ABC banner on
wall
student press call and he's going to be
questioned this morning not by me, by
students
MS Dick and students in studio from Redeema Lutheran College
MS People looking into studio at Rochdale.
CU Instrument panel
STUDENT SYNC: Do you think though
MCU Back view of student in radio
studio, pans to Dick Smith
that we should just be taking a national
approach to these issues or would a global
approach to finding a solution to these
issues be more beneficial?
DICK SYNC: I think we certainly should
take a global approach
MCU Dick in radio studio because I've been able to fly around the
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
24
world five times at low levels in my
helicopters and planes and see the affect
that we've had
CU Student and commonsense says we‟ve got too many
people on this world, if we can just have
slightly less
CU Boy student people we'll probably be able to
MS Dick Smith
live for thousands of years but the rate
we're going another 100 years time we're
going to be in problems.
DICK VO: Those kids
MCU Student
raised an important point - Australia
can't simply ignore the rest
MS Students and Dick in studio of the world when it comes to population.
CU Dick driving car (Music)
DICK VO: It seems to me they've given it
more thought than our politicians.
CU Radio being turned up by Dick RADIO NEWSREADER: The Federal Finance
Minister Lindsay Tanner
CU Rear view of Dick as he drives
has scoffed at the suggestion that
Australia is overpopulated. In a speech
WS Car driving along road in Melbourne today Mr Tanner said other
countries would laugh
WS Rear view of car driving along road in Australians mounted that argument as an
excuse for
MCU Side view of Dick driving car
clamping down on immigration.
LINDSAY TANNER: The argument
MCU Dick‟s reflection in rear-view
mirror
that Australia is already overpopulated
WS Car driving along road is simply nonsense. Bangladesh is roughly
twice the physical
MS Rear view of Dick as he drives car size of Tasmania but home to about 7 times
the population
WS Car as it drives along the road of Australia. If Australia seeks to
persuade the rest of the world that we are
overpopulated
WS View from front windscreen of car
we would rightly be laughed at.
(Music)
MS Buses in Bangladesh DICK VO: I wonder if Lindsay Tanner has
ever been to Bangladesh.
MS Buses and trucks on road
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
25
WS Panning along traffic congestion in
Bangladesh
Is he arguing Australia has to look like
this before we can have a say about our
own population levels? Bangladesh has
MS Traffic and pedestrians on street in
Bangladesh
160 million people, the most densely
populated, major country on Earth.
MS Dick being taken to slum area
MS Dick talks to family and enters
their accommodation
DICK SYNC: Hello. Can I come in?
MAN SYNC: Yes.
DICK SYNC: Thank you. Wow. And you've got
television?
MAN SYNC: Yes.
DICK VO: In this slum
WS Aerial view of slum, pulls out in Dakar 250,000 people are packed into an
area of just one square kilometre.
DICK SYNC: So this is about
MS Dick in accommodation of family
3 metres by 4 metres and 5 people live
here?
MAN SYNC: Five people live here.
DICK SYNC: Five. This is mother?
MAN SYNC: Mother.
MS People getting off boat (Music)
DICK VO: It would be much worse if Bangladesh
hadn't made heroic efforts to curb its population growth.
WS Boat driving down river
WS Banks of river with boats and
traders
Mr Tanner might be surprised to learn that
Australia is currently growing even faster
than here.
WS Dick and Dr Kim Streatfield walking
in emergency clinic
DR KIM SYNC: Australia needs to set
itself as an example as well of how to
deal with population issues.
WS Dick and Dr Kim Streatfield in
emergency clinic
In this ward everybody gets mixed, you
know, adults and children.
DICK VO: For 18 years Australian Dr Kim
Streatfield has been living here and
studying the connections between
MS Baby girl lying on bed
population and health. Every summer the
grounds of his research centre in Dakar
become an emergency clinic treating a
thousand patients a day for severe
diarrhoea.
CU Woman DR KIM: There is not enough water, we're
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
26
in
MS Woman trying to feed child Dakar the reason you're seeing so many
people here today is that
MS Dick and Dr Kim Streatfield
Super: Dr Kim Streatfield
International Centre for Diarrhoeal
Disease Research, Bangladesh
we are at the bottom of the Dakar water
table, the upper water table, it's been
dropping at 3 metres a year. There's no
way that can recharge during the monsoon
with this kind of infrastructure
population living on top of the aquifer,
there's no way we can recharge the
aquifer. This is a very serious shortage
that we're facing.
MS Nurse in emergency clinic pouring
milk
DICK VO: Despite the acute situation
every year this centre and others like it
are losing their best trained doctors,
nurses and computer specialists to
countries like Australia.
MS Doctor checking IV for patient DICK SYNC: Kim, have you lost any staff
when it comes to
MS Dick and Dr Kim Streatfield people heading off overseas to greener
fields?
DR KIM SYNC: I have, I lost my office
manager last week and three computer
programmers to Canada within the last 18
months or so.
WS Doctors sitting at desk in emergency
clinic
And this centre loses staff at the rate
probably of 100 a year.
MS Dick and Dr Kim Streatfield It's just happening every week, every
week. And it's immoral.
WS Patients in emergency clinic DICK VO: As a rich country Australia
can't ignore the population problems
elsewhere but we're not helping by
plundering poorer nations of the people
they can least afford to lose.
Medical staff coming from developing
countries in 2009
Nurses 2780
Doctors 3085
DICK VO: Last year two thirds of
Australia's doctors and nurses were
recruited from the world's poorest
nations. And why are we looking to the
developing world to fill gaps in our work
force? Because
MS Billboard it's a hell of a lot easier and cheaper
than training our own people.
Footage of „Insight – A bigger
Australia‟ featuring Ross Gittins and
Dick Smith
ROSS SYNC: The problem with trying to
solve skills shortages by just turning on
the immigration tap and bringing in the
people we need is that you create a
disincentive for employers to do what they
should be doing which is training enough
Australians. They don't train enough
Australians because they know all they
have to do is run to the Government and
say let in some more skilled people.
DICK SYNC: We do it, the easiest way we
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
27
can and the cheapest way and if you can
simply bring someone in as a skilled
immigrant, not do any of the training,
it's the best way to go. A recent
Government report showed that we have
something like 4 million people
functionally illiterate. They could be
trained. It's hard work to train them but
there's plenty of people here.
MCU Back view of Dick walking up
hallway of office
(Music)
DICK VO: It's nothing short of a national
disgrace that so many
MS Pans down from window to Dick
walking along corridor
Australians are not receiving the skills
they need to find meaningful work in our
modern economy. People like I met at this
adult
WS Students in adult literacy class
sitting at table
literacy class.
WOMAN SYNC: OK,
MCU Woman speaking to class does anybody know what a search engine is?
MCU Two students DICK VO: For one reason or another
WS Students at table looking at teacher
in front of white board
millions of Australians are falling
through the cracks in our education
system.
MCU Man in orange t-shirt DICK SYNC: How old are you now?
MAN SYNC: 32.
CU Dick Smith pans to MCU Man with
glasses and red t-shirt
DICK SYNC: You're 32 and how old was it
when you left school, what about 13 or 14?
MAN SYNC: I didn't go to school, Dick.
DICK SYNC: You didn't really go to
school.
MAN SYNC: I went in one door and straight
back out the other.
MS Students sitting at table WOMAN SYNC: I come here as a bride. I
didn't study English, this is the first
time here.
MS Dick and students seated around
table
When I first came here I found it like it
was really, really difficult for me.
Sometimes I started like crying, I
couldn't understand anything.
CU Man DICK SYNC: What I'd like to see is
CU Dick Smith Australian business concentrating on
training people, increasing the skills of
our own work force before just lazily
taking people from overseas and would you
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
28
like to learn more skills?
ALL: Yes.
DICK SYNC: Unanimous and like to get a
better job?
ALL: Yes.
DICK SYNC: Or in some cases a job at all.
And I think I mentioned to you, I had a
speech defect when I was 8 years of age
but I did OK.
MAN SYNC: You speak very well now.
DICK SYNC: A bit of practice. People say
I speak too much.
MAN SYNC: Practice makes perfect.
MS Panning from one end of group to
other
DICK VO: It disappoints me that big
business and the Government can just throw
away so many local people while they
pursue their dream for a big Australia.
Footage „Q&A‟ featuring Dick Smith
video question
TONY JONES SYNC: Got another question on
this topic, it's a video question sent in
by a rather well known businessman in
fact, Dick Smith.
DICK SYNC: My question's to Heather
Ridout. Heather, you've been a supporter
of high immigration levels but you're also
on the board of Skills Australia. How can
you support such a large influx of foreign
workers when you know Australian workers
are being abandoned when it comes to
training?
HEATHER RIDOUT SYNC: Thanks, Dick Smith
for your question. It's actually 7 million
Australians between the age of 15 and 64
that don't have the basic literacy and
numeracy skills required for modern
workplace it's a very, very damning
statistic and it comes from a major survey
and it hasn't improved in 10 years so
there's no doubt we've got to do something
about that issue.
TONY JONES SYNC: Is Dick Smith right in
his assumption that bringing in skilled
immigrants actually makes the incentive
for skilling up those functionally
illiterate workers less likely?
HEATHER RIDOUT SYNC: No, it doesn't, it
makes it - they're complementary measures.
BOB CARR SYNC: You've got a skills
shortage in one sector of the economy
because of booming activity. You import a
tradesperson to fill that shortage. The
tradesperson brings his or her family. So
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
29
studies have shown that that adds more to
the demand for schools, hospitals, peak
hour transport and the rest. We're going
to have to accept at some time in our
history, as the world will, a
stabilisation of population. You can't -
my challenge to the advocates of high
population is when will you ever be
satisfied?
WS Time lapse crowds crossing street DICK VO: The mess over training is just
one
WS Slo-mo crowds of people example of how no-one is joining up the
dots on the real consequences
WS People in shopping mall of an increasing population and it doesn't
get any dumber than our approach to
climate change. On one hand
MCU Wind turbine, pans down to show
other turbines in distance
Super: Capital Wind Farm Bungendore
NSW
the Government wants to reduce our
greenhouse gas emissions but on the other
hand it's pushing for population growth.
It's the most ridiculously contradictory
thing I've ever heard of, just like these
wind turbines. Great for the environment
until you realise that every watt of
energy generated here is dedicated to
powering Sydney's hugely expensive
desalination plant solely so the city can
cope with more people.
WS Group of wind turbines pans down to
car driving past
BOB BIRRELL SYNC: And what we've shown in
our work
Super: Professor Bob Birrell
Centre for Population & Urban Research
Monash University
is that by far the most significant factor
in promoting greenhouse gas emissions in
Australia is population growth.
WS Bob and Dick walking in parklands DICK VO: Bob Birrell is the grand old man
of Australian demographers. He's been a
thorn in the side of a dozen immigration
ministers. He calls the politicians‟ bluff
when it comes to dopey public policy.
MCU Dick Smith DICK SYNC: The Prime Minister is calling
on us to cut our greenhouse emissions but
do we have a way of doing that while we're
increasing our population?
WS UN Climate Change conference
Super: UN Climate Change Conference
Copenhagen 2009
WS Dick in hangar drawing on chart on
wall
MCU Barack Obama at conference BARACK OBAMA: As the world watches us
today I think our ability to take
collective action is in doubt right now.
MCU Kevin Rudd at conference DICK SYNC: We can't possibly reduce
human- induced carbon emissions by
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
30
doubling our population. Now nobody talks
about it. Can you imagine at the
conference in Copenhagen I was looking on
television, I thought surely there will be
one person holding up a banner that says
“Population?”. There was nobody. And in
the Australian media I didn't hear any
mention of population.
WS Panning from helicopter in hangar to
hangar door where Dick enters and
starts to draw on chart
DICK SYNC: So let's look at the
population, you know, 4,000 BC, 3,000 BC,
see it's climbing just very slowly until
around about the time of Christ and it's
about 150 million and then it gradually
climbs but something really strange
happens around about 1800 when it's about
1 billion.
MCU Dick Smith DICK SYNC: If global warming is caused by
humans we have to at the human side.
Presently about 6.7 billion to go to over
9 billion, well there's no way you can
increase to 9 billion and let people in
India and China raise their material
standard of living, which is they should
be able to, and reduce human-induced
greenhouse gases. It's impossible. We're
kidding ourselves.
WS Dick in hangar drawing on chart on
wall
Now what could have caused that? Well
look, let me put in two lines that will
give you a hint. Two lines here, one and
the other one is here around about 1850 to
2050, now that's the time of cheap fossil
fuels.
MCU Dick as he looks at chart Now if you saw a graph like that at the
stock market what do you think would
happen next?
MS Rear shot of Dick looking at chart
hanging on wall
MCU Chart being held by Dick
MS Dick speaking at conference, pans to
audience members looking at chart
A crash! Now let me hand that around. If
we go to 9.1 billion and we already have 1
billion people facing malnutrition at the
moment we're going to add another 2
billion to it and we're being told at the
same time that climate change is going to
affect the output of our crops, they're
going to go down.
Archive footage of fruit MAN: Australia has been able to meet all
her own dried fruit requirements since
1912 and since that time she has built up
a healthy export market.
WS Dick shopping in fruit shop DICK VO: We don't have to argue about
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
31
what's causing climate change.
MCU Dick walking past celery display It's the effects that matter. Australia's
MS Dick picking up cabbage and placing
in trolley
no land of plenty anymore.
MCU Dick as he shops in fruit shop Sure, we export huge
MS Dick picking up watermelon and places
in trolley quantities of wheat and meat but we're
increasingly importing more and more of
our food.
MCU Potatoes being picked up by Dick Australia's farming has been hard hit by
drought.
MCU Panning apples up to price tag which
then shows image of orchard The future is uncertain. There simply
isn't enough water to go around.
(Music)
CU Photos of peaches and trees in album DICK: Everything is so rich, the peaches,
is this a peach tree?
BARRY: These are peach trees, yes.
WS Dick and Barry Mangelsdorf seated at
kitchen table
DICK SYNC: So how many years, over 50
years of production on the farm?
DICK VO: Barry Mangelsdorf's family
B&W Photo of Barry as a kid with other
siblings
has been growing fruit in Loxton on the
Murray for almost 60 years.
CU Photos in album BARRY: 1954 we came here and that was
prior to us
Super: Barry Mangelsdorf
Citrus Owner
coming, they come up to see the house
being built so it would have been early
'54.
MS Looking over the shoulders of Dick
and Barry looking at photo album
DICK SYNC: Some Dick Smith glasses here.
BARRY: That's right. They were
fashionable back then. They're coming back
again now.
CU Photo of Barry DICK SYNC: Now your Dad, he was a
soldier.
BARRY SYNC: Yes,
B&W Photo of Mr Mangelsdorf in military
uniform
Dad served in the Second World War and the
whole Loxton irrigation area was set up as
a soldier settler's property and given
basically
Footage of farm a house and about somewhere between 25 to
30 acres of land.
(Music)
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
32
DICK VO: There's a sad irony in all this,
once the Government paid Barry's family to
settle here, now they're paying him to
leave.
WS Bulldozer knocking down trees With the Murray running dry small
irrigators are being paid to bulldoze
their crops and to burn their trees. It's
costing nearly$60 million for 300
Riverland farmers to abandon the land. All
because more people need more water.
WS Knocked down trees, bulldozer in
background knocking down more trees
DICK SYNC: Barry, it must be very
WS Dick and Barry walking towards
bundle of knocked down trees
sad to be burning this.
BARRY SYNC: Well, it's something we don't
really - didn't expect to do in our
lifetime. It's as simple as that.
MS Barry and Dick putting papers in
amongst trees
Whack that on there.
MCU Newspapers in trees being lit DICK: And are you telling me the
Government actually came along and said
we're going to pay you over $200,000 to
stop growing food/
MS Panning L-R land to burning bundle
of trees
BARRY: That's exactly right, Dick, just
to pay us an amount for our water and then
pay us some money for exit so we can go on
with our lives.
DICK: Do you see a conflict there where
you're being
WS Dick and Barry talking with smoke
blowing in front of them
paid to go off the land to stop growing
food but we're going to increase the
population by 60%?
WS Burning trees in foreground, Barry
and Dick in background watching
BARRY: We need the food production in
these areas. I think that if we grow less
food we won't be able to sustain the 36
million population.
DICK: I just think
WS Rear shot of Dick and Barry as they
watch burning trees
it's very sad to see what's happening to
you. I don't think city people have any
inkling that you're being paid to stop
MS Panning down from sky to rear shot of
Dick and Barry as they watch burning
trees
growing food that we need.
MAN: In the journey from
B&W Archival footage of settlements source to mouth you have seen the growth
and development of settlement along
Australia's greatest river. The picture
today is a splendid one
WS Cracked dry earth but the effort is not finished. The
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
33
magnificent valley of the Murray River is
too precious
MS Skeleton of animal on earth to be spoilt by carelessness and
indifference.
EWS Dick walking through outback
towards ruins
DICK VO: You can't suddenly generate
water. This is an arid country. We are
cyclic, we have droughts from time to time
and so there's no doubt in my mind we
can't support 35 million people but
MS Stone walls of ruins what's worse we've been providing food for
the rest of the world. Well, we won't be
able to supply that food. I wonder if
we're going to have enough food for
ourselves.
MCU Dick answer mobile phone as he
walks along track
DICK SYNC: Hello.
MCU Rear shot of Dick talking on mobile
phone as he walks down track
What's happened?
NEWSREADER: The Prime Minister has
Footage ABC News – Population Control highlighted the importance of population
growth by announcing a new portfolio and
elevating the issue to the ministry. Tony
Burke has become Australia's first
Population Minister.
MCU Dick‟s feet as he walks DICK SYNC: I can't believe it,
MCU Dick talking on mobile phone as he
walks along track
they're going to appoint a minister for
population.
Super: Canberra
Tony Burke
Population Minister
TONY BURKE SYNC: Population pressures hit
different parts of the nation differently.
MCU Dick talking on mobile phone as he
walks along track
What four months ago no mention of
population now we have a minister, what is
it a minister for population?
MS Dick walking along sandy track
NEWSREADER: He's been given 12 months to
come up with Australia's first
comprehensive population strategy.
DICK: I'm amazed that something can
happen so quickly but I still think it's
going to be years away before we actually
get a proper decision made by Government.
Thank you, good on you.
MCU Dick talking on mobile phone as he
walks along track DICK SYNC: We now have a Minister for
Population.
MCU Dick Smith addressing audience
Now I'm a bit scared he's actually a
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
34
minister for population growth. Yes,
MS Rear shot of Dick as he address
audience because everything he's talked about is
well, I'll be looking at how we can cope
with the 36 million, not one of our
politicians is saying do we actually want
36 million, wouldn't it be better if we
had 24 or 25. When you
MCU Dick Smith addressing audience
decide to get on to an aeroplane if you
send your family off in an aeroplane it's
a 1 in 5 million chance of them being
hurt, pretty good odds.
MCU Dick flying helicopter
I'm told by the scientists that it's
about a 30% chance that my little
granddaughter won't have enough food to
eat at the end of the century.
RADIO ANNOUNCER: Lindsay Tanner, of
course, is the Minister for Finance and
he's on the line, good afternoon,
Lindsay.
LINDSAY TANNER: Good afternoon. Look,
the comments that Mr Smith have made
WS Shots of national park from window of
helicopter today are completely absurd and totally
irresponsible suggesting that we're going
to see starvation in Australia in the not
too distant future. We currently export
about 60% of our total agricultural
production, so in other words we are
already feeding a lot more people than
are living in Australia so the kind of
florid claims being made by Dick Smith
are grossly irresponsible and completely
absurd.
MS Shots of landscape from window from
helicopter DICK VO: Well, let‟s go
MS Shots of coastline from window from
helicopter and see if our farmers agree with the
Minister.
WS Helicopter flying over farming land
Whenever I fly over Australia I see prime
farmland being turned over to developers.
WS Panning across farm land to auction
sign What happens if one day we need it for
our food production?
WS Panning orchard in Hawkesbury
This is the Hawkesbury district,
virtually the last farmland within the
Sydney basin.
WS Dick and John Maguire walking through
orchard
Very soon this rich soil will be buried
under yet another suburb on the city's
ever expanding fringe.
MS Dick and John walking amongst orchard
John Maguire's beautiful little orchard
seems doomed.
MCU John Maguire
Super: John Maguire
Orchardist
JOHN SYNC: I am an endangered species.
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
35
EWS Panning land to construction of new
housing If this land is settled for housing then
there's no turning back, it's prime
agricultural land, it has the
WS New house being constructed
great potential for food production and
if
MCU John Maguire
the land is gone, then it's gone forever.
WS Housing development
JULIAN CRIBB: One of the big mistakes we
made in Australia
WS Billboard advertising land sale
is to sacrifice nearly all our good
country,
WS Julian Cribb and Dick in vacant land
our country that combines reliable
rainfall with good soils to other uses.
It will never come back into agriculture.
WS Panning down from tree to Dick and
Julian sitting on bench A lot of people accuse me of being
alarmist.
DICK VO: Julian Cribb is one of the most
respected observers of Australia's rural
industries. He's deeply troubled about
the future
MS Panning from grass up tree with
houses in background security of our food supplies. I think
we'd be taking a big chance with the
sustainability of this country
MCU Julian Cribb
Super: Professor Julian Cribb
Author
because we're running out of land, water,
fuel, fertiliser, science and technology
all the things that we need to grow more
food plus we've got climate change on
top.
WS Tractor ploughing field
The average Australian farmer grows say 2
tonnes of wheat to the hectare.
MS Panning from tractor wheel to
plougher To feed the population in 2050 that
farmer's going to have to increase that
to about 5 tonnes per hectare.
MCU Julian Cribb
Massive increase in output and he's going
to have less rainfall to do it and he's
going to have more
WS Tractor ploughing field
degraded soil to do it on and he's going
to have very expensive or unavailable
fuel to do it with.
MCU Soil being ploughed
DICK: So you're telling me that no-one
really knows whether we can feed 36
million?
MCU Julian Cribb
JULIAN SYNC: No, no-one really knows
whether we can feed 36 million people.
MCU Dick Smith in hangar
DICK SYNC: This is the most important
thing I've ever done in my life. It's
incredible because I've done very well
out of Australia but I see terrible
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
36
problems coming for future generations
and I don't want them to look back and
say well people like Dick Smith, they
were supposed to be influential, why
didn't they do anything? And I'm going to
spend the rest of my life trying to get a
proper policy, not just for Australia but
for the world on population so we know
that, using that terrible word
sustainable, we know that we can live for
thousands of years in on this Earth in
balance, not completely ruin it so in
effect people are going to starve in the
future.
WS Panning around farm land
DICK VO: So let's sum this up. What are
the arguments in favour of a big
Australia?
Graphics
Plan then crossed out Does anyone have a plan? Well no.
Graphic
Environment then crossed out Have we solved the water and
environmental issues? Nope.
Graphics
Defence then crossed out Do we need more people to defend
ourselves? That won't work.
Graphics
Skills Shortages
Ageing and then crossed out
Is mass immigration an effective way of
solving skills shortages or an ageing
population? No there are better
alternatives at home.
Graphic
Foreign Policy ?
And lastly are our current policies
helping the rest of the world? What do you
think?
MCU Kevin Rudd on „7:30 Report‟ KEVIN RUDD SYNC: I actually believe in a
big Australia.
MCU Tony Abbott giving speech
Super: Tony Abbot
Opposition Leader
TONY ABBOTT SYNC: My instinct is to
extend to as many people as possible the
freedom and benefits of life in Australia.
MCU Julia Gillard on „Lateline‟ JULIA GILLARD SYNC: We obviously believe
that there needs to be a discussion about
population.
WS People lined up at airport DICK SYNC: Politicians
MCU Dick Smith will come around, they rarely lead, they
normally follow, they'll find that 90% of
Australians want this issue to be looked
at and I think 90% would rather we don't
increase to 35 or 40 million people.
MS Kevin Rudd and staff walking through
Parliament House
NEWSREADER: In breaking news tonight
there are leadership rumblings within
WS Julia Gillard walking through
Parliament House
the Rudd Government.
NEWSREADER: Australia is on the cusp of
Dick Smith‟s Population Puzzle Vision Audio
37
having its first female prime minister.
MS Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan and others
leaving caucus meeting passed media
MAN: The new leader of the Federal
Parliamentary Labor Party elected
unopposed is Julia Gillard.
MAN: The issues now
MCU Kevin Rudd giving final speech as
PM
that Kevin Rudd was dealing with and
struggling with in recent
MS Julia Gillard and Quentin Bryce at
swearing in
weeks now all come across her desk.
NEWSREADER: One of her first breaks
Footage from „ABC News Breakfast‟ from Kevin Rudd's policy is Julia Gillard
says she's interested in a sustainable
Australia and not a big Australia.
MCU Julia Gillard on „Today Show‟
talking to Laurie Oakes
JULIA GILLARD SYNC: Kevin Rudd as prime
minister indicated that he had a view
about a big Australia.
LAURIE OAKES: He did use that phrase.
JULIA: I am –
LAURIE: I'm not sure anyone wants a
little Australia.
JULIA: I'm indicating a different
approach, Laurie. I think we want an
Australia that is sustainable, this place
is
MS Panning from kitchen sink to Dick
Smith sitting at end of bench reading
newspaper
our sanctuary, our home, we all wish it
best for the future and I think for the
best future we shouldn't just
CU Newspaper front page
hurtle down a track. We should pause, we
should take a breath.
CU Dick Smith reading newspaper
WOMAN: Julia Gillard has not committed
to
Footage of panellists on „Insiders‟
a lesser number, she‟s just said let's
just not talk about the big scary number
in the future.
BARRIE CASSIDY: On Channel 9 she has now
said Tony Burke the Minister for
Population now has - I'm not sure if he
has a new department or new portfolio but
he has a new title it's the Minister for
Sustainable Population.
Footage of Tony Burke on „ABC News
Breakfast‟ TONY BURKE SYNC: I remember meeting with
