Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson says the Australian government should embrace population growth, defending an immigration boost to improve the country’s economy.
“Australia would benefit from a bigger population,” says Branson in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, adding: “a bigger population would create a much bigger economy without negatively affecting the people’s way of life”.
In Branson’s opinion, Australia should target wealthy foreigners to settle in the country, and cites Canada as an example of a country in which that had positive effects.
In the 1990s Canada began opening its borders to wealthy Hong Kong citizens worried about the British colony being returned to China in 1997. “It really propelled Canada forward,” says the Virgin boss.
Branson’s comments are bound to spark controversy, as immigration has become one of the hot topics in Australia’s current election debates.
