Australia's population figure has made the world stage. Voice of America says we have appointed our first minister for population to cope with record levels of immigration. Business leaders say the country needs more skilled foreign workers, while the conservative opposition vows to cut immigration levels because of infrastructure and environmental concerns.

A recent government report says that Australia could reach 36 million people by 2050, from the current 22 million.

Australia's population is expanding faster than any other country in Asia and at double the world average.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd welcomes what he calls a "big Australia" and equates population growth with economic opportunity.  

Mr. Rudd has appointed the country's first minister for population. Tony Burke will have the job of shaping the country's response to its rising population.

The Rudd government has presided over a period of unprecedented immigration. Last year more than 300,000 new people arrived in Australia, although many were temporary workers and foreign students.

News reports over the weekend quote our Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens as saying that foreign buyers are a factor in rising house prices. This news came just before another stunning weekend of house sales in my city, Melbourne, where nearly $1 billion worth of real estate was sold.

Some overseas investors are apparently buying Melbourne real estate to safeguard wealth and advance hopes of migration to Australia. Restrictions have been eased for those on temporary visas, such as business owners and foreign students, to allow them to buy any home to live in, land to build on or new dwelling for investment purposes.

One real estate agent said a few streets in the eastern suburbs of Kew and Balwyn were now 80% Chinese-owned. Michael Liu from Marshall White was quoted as saying "they want to send their children to the best schools and think property here is cheap compared to the big cities in China, where you don't get freehold ownership over land, just a 99 year lease."

That sentiment is evident in my area of Glen Waverley as well where a lot of Chinese have invested so they can send their children to Glen Waverley Secondary College, supposedly one of the better state-owned schools in my region.

Victoria is leading Australia in population growth for the first time in 45 years. Record overseas immigration has allowed Victoria to overtake Queensland and New South Wales as the state with the highest population growth in the year to last September.

In that year, our population in this state grew by 2.2% or 117,900 people. It looks like Melbourne passed the 4,000,000 mark mid-2009 and is growing by about 100,000 people a year.

Our total immigration rose to a new peak of 305,872 in the year to March.

I see reports yesterday that some British expats are leaving Australia to return home, lured by the cheap Pound (the $ is at a 25 year high against the £ ), soaring house prices here in Australia and a corresponding slump in UK house prices.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that "while reports of a UK repatriation surge remain mostly anecdotal, some in the financial markets detect the shift. Spencer Wilcox, managing director of forex dealing house HiFX, said he noticed the trend at the start of this year, and it's accelerated from ''about 10 kilometres an hour in late December to about 90 kilometres an hour right now.''

HiFX, which conducts about 200 Australian dollar/pound deals a month locally for private clients, said it has seen the 50 per cent jump in the number of individuals selling large amounts of Australian dollars to purchase real estate in the UK, Mr Wilcox said.

''Most English people have a good handle of where the exchange rate is at any time,'' said Mr Wilcox, adding that they often remember the rate they received when they moved to Australia.

The dollar, currently buying about 61 pence, makes it "the best time in 25 years to move back to England," said Mr Wilcox.

Immigration figures suggest that Australia is also becoming less attractive for Brits. While the UK accounted for the second largest number of immigrants to Australia in the year to June 2009, their numbers dropped 7 per cent to 21,600 people for the year.

That drop compares with a 20 per cent jump in New Zealanders to 33,000, while immigration from India rose about 10 per cent to 17,000 while those from mainland Chinese rose by 15 per cent to about 15,000, according to data from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

Meanwhile the New York Times has reported that Britain continues to spend its gloom away. It quoted independent actuary, Nick Silver, as saying the nation's debt burden - including pension obligations and the cost of bailing our big banks - is actually 420% of GDP, twice the level of Japan, the wordl's leading debtor.

Just launched the ebook, The Australian Immigration Handbook, and its now available to purchase and download from this website. We just know you're going to love the information in this ebook, not to mention the photos, tips and other gems that make it a real steal at the special launch price of only $17.

We expect that price to revert to normal within a week or so.

In the meantime, here's some shots from my country that are not in the ebook - enjoy!

This blog will post updates since the ebook was written. If you've purchased The Australian Immigration Handbook we suggest you check back here regularly to see if any of the main rules and regulations have changed.