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Migration is front and centre of the political debate right now, but it is often reduced to a set of statistics and whether the country is facing a ‘crisis’. Some experts argue we are focusing on the wrong number, and the bigger problem is a failure to plan for population growth. The ABC’s Your Say initiative heard from communities across the country and went to Australia’s multicultural heartland to see how the issues are playing out on the ground.

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00:03Australia's multicultural heartland. Western Sydney is booming. It's also bursting at the
00:11seams and some residents are fed up. The infrastructure certainly hasn't kept with
00:18the speed of the growing population. The sheer amount of people trying to use the same roads.
00:22There's no really a park for kids to play. So most of the kids, you know, they're actually
00:27playing on roads. When the people drive very fast, they're at risk. We have few GPs, very
00:31few GPs here. This community of Riverston in Sydney's North West Growth Corridor is taking
00:38action. We've gone and met the council. We've spoken to them directly, like face to face.
00:43And they're worried social cohesion is fraying. People don't know who to blame. So they're
00:48going to blame the migration because the government system has failed. Experts agree. This is
00:54a lack of planning and a lack of adequate infrastructure issue. Professor Alan Gamlin argues migrants
01:02are copping the blame for everything because the national political debate is focused on
01:08the wrong migration number. We have reduced the net overseas migration by 45%. We are a great
01:14immigrant nation. Make no mistake about it. But not 550,000. If we treat net migration as the
01:21problem, we're supporting the false conclusion that all migration is the problem. That is
01:27clearly not the case. If you drill into the numbers, permanent migration has remained relatively
01:32stable while successive governments have allowed temporary visas to surge. Experts want a more
01:39rigorous national debate that focuses on what they say is the right problem. Regulating the
01:45size of temporary migration while balancing economic needs and community values. Net overseas migration
01:52and putting a target number on all migration is an extremely blunt instrument. We need more
01:57like a surgical knife to go into the migration program and regulate the sort of excessively deregulated
02:03areas of the temporary migration program. A spokesperson for the immigration minister says,
02:09our government is prioritising the skills we need to build homes, run our health and aged care systems
02:14and support the regions, while bringing down net overseas migration by 45%. Meanwhile, residents
02:22in Western Sydney say they can't afford to wait any longer. For me, it is a human rights issue. It's
02:28like a
02:28volcano underneath the surface. Any particular incident can trigger it and the volcano can burst.
02:34foundation for the surface. Any operation could go down. Thank you.
02:39So here is the virus, can you update on pets channel attentively.
02:41Again, I think it's important. I hope you enjoy these cleaning geht there Nieuwoki things.
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