ABC NEWS (AU): As the Rudd Government continues to accept record numbers of migrants, dissatisfaction with Australia's immigration intake is rising for the first time since the early 1990s.
This financial year the Federal Government plans to accept close to 204,000 migrants.
However a paper by Dr Katherine Betts, an associate professor of sociology at Swinburne University, reveals growing voter disquiet about Australia's intake.
"In 2004, 34 per cent of voters thought that the intake should be reduced," Dr Betts said.
"In 2007, after the last election, 46 per cent thought it should be reduced. That was an increase of 12 percentage points.
"It is quite unusual that opposition to the immigration intake should rise during a period that was economically rosy, because you have to remember the people responded to this in late November and early December last year.
"What we do find is that concerns about affordability of housing really jumped over that period between '05 and '07.
"What we are looking at here is a period when immigration numbers have been really very high and population growth been quite sharp. Like in 2002 the population grew by 237,000. In 2007 it grew by 332,000.
"So it has really grown quite fast and that is fast enough for people to actually see the effects of it. Especially in pressure points like Sydney and Melbourne, where most of the migrants go." Dissatisfaction with Immigration Intake Rising >>> | October 13, 2008
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