Australia’s population growth,composition and distribution: Emerging research needs

In 1993 the charter of the Bureau of Immigration Research (BIR) was widened to encompass other areas of population and its name changed to the Bureau of Immigration and Population Research (BIPR). The paper argues that for too long population policy and policy-related research in Australia has been synonymous with immigration policy and research and that this change presents an opportunity to redress this imbalance and broaden the range of areas across which government and private sector activity in Australia can be assisted through knowledge of population dynamics. It is essential, however, that the BIPR broaden the scope of its activity and the present paper presents a research agenda which encompasses a range of population issues of relevance to contemporary private and public sector activity. A version of this paper was presented to a seminar organized by the Centre for Immigration and Multicultural Studies and the Demography Program of the Australian National University for the Bureau of Immigration and Population Research in Canberra, 20 August 1993.