Immigrants set record with more to come by Kerry-Anne Walsh

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Immigrants set record with more to come
by Kerry-Anne Walsh

As Australia celebrates the population meter ticking over to 21 million, a record immigration figure for a financial year is expected to escalate the population boom.

A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said the projected target of up to 148,000 new immigrants for 2006-07 would be met once the figures were tallied.

It represents one of the greatest immigration influxes in decades. Aided by a rising number of births, Australia is experiencing a rise in population numbers not seen since the two most significant boom periods, after World War II and in the 1980s.

The secretary of the Department of Immigration, Andrew Metcalfe, had already hailed the previous year's growth as a record.

In the department's annual report, he commended the outcome for 2005-06 of 143,000 new migrants as

Author's Biography:

Kerry-Anne Walsh, smh.com.au

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