CANBERRA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Australian government announced the updated Population Plan to better manage the country's growth, according to the Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure Alan Tudge on Monday.
He provided further details of the government's plan to prevent Sydney and Melbourne, the nation's two biggest cities, from becoming congested "megacities".
The government has already cut the annual permanent migration cap from 190,000 to 160,000 in order to curb growth.
Tudge on Monday said it would pursue additional decentralization measures for new arrivals to go to regional centres and smaller cities.
It would also include fast rail and infrastructure connecting those regions to the major cities as well as "further incentives and support for humanitarian entrants to go to regional areas."
"The government is continuing to look at this avenue of supporting regional growth through migration," Tudge said, citing Canada as a country that has achieved a better distribution of new arrivals.
Through its approach, Canada has lifted the percentage of migrants who settle outside of its three biggest provinces from 10 percent in the 1990s to 34 percent in 2017.
"While we don't want, and nor would it be feasible, to have some grand master-planned Australia, we do need to take a stronger position on our settlement patterns using the policy levers at our disposal.
"The risk otherwise is that in 30 or 40 years' time, Australia will end up with two or three megacities, but relatively sparse development elsewhere." Enditem
