Presentation by Associate Professor Natalie Jackson
Royal Society Room
Tuesday, 2nd June 2009 Commencing 8.00pm until 10.00pm
About the Speaker
Natalie Jackson is an Associate Professor in the School of Sociology and Social Work, University of Tasmania. She is also the national president of the Australian Population Association. Natalie gained her Ph.D. in demography from the Australian National University, and also holds a Master of Social Science in demography and anthropology from the University of Waikato in New Zealand.Her main area of research is the different rates of population ageing unfolding across Australia’s states, territories and local government areas, and the social, economic and political implications of these trends. She is widely consulted on and published in the field, and has given over 100 invited presentations on this topic over the past five years. Natalie says that as an ageing baby boomer herself, she is driven to ensuring that demographic trends are fully understood and prepared for, both for her own comfort, and for those who must change the way they presently do business.
Brief Abstract of the Talk
Continuing media reports of an anticipated growth in global population of some 2-3 billion over the next half century conceal a more important story: that of the end of global growth by the end of the century. Zero growth, and, in some cases absolute decline, is already extant across Europe and Japan, and will begin even in populous China well before mid century. Ironically then, after a century of hand-wringing about population growth, the emerging concern is depopulation, which is already being met in the developed world with baby bonuses and increased migration quotas. As the hands on the population clock slow, a number of unprecedented ‘cross-overs’ will occur: fewer labour market entrants than exits, more elderly than children, more deaths than births. These changes, which will unfold incongruently across and within countries, will raise many new challenges, uppermost among them labour market reform and ethical migration. This paper outlines the story.
