Chapter 150: People's Livelihood Issues
As the saying goes, "When one is well-fed and warm, desires arise." Once people have enough funds, they will have the energy to live their personal lives well. Consequently, the number of newborns has been steadily increasing.
This is also a good thing for Australia. The proportion of native Australians is extremely important as these people are the foundation of maintaining Australia's rule.
Apart from the integration of immigrants into Australian society, the only way Australia can expand its population is through encouraging childbirth.
Immigration from the United Kingdom is a result of Australia's efforts in the UK. Arthur's reputation in the UK was already quite high, and many British people held a very favorable view of him.
This was also the reason why Australia's immigration efforts in the UK were successful. People, without rejecting Arthur, had more options when they decided to emigrate.
German immigration surpassing that of the British Empire was largely due to William II's policy of enticing Australia.
Since the effective start of the aid treaty between the German Empire and Australia, more than 100,000 Germans had immigrated to Australia, becoming permanent residents.
Of course, most of these people had already obtained Australian citizenship, and in name, they were real Australians. However, no one could guarantee that their loyalty to Australia would surpass that to the German Empire. This was exactly what William II intended.
These German immigrants to Australia would do whatever they could to influence Australian political decisions and pull Australia onto Germany's side.
"Indeed, population has always been one of Australia's greatest issues. Whether encouraging childbirth domestically or attracting immigrants externally, these are always some of our most important decisions. However, while attracting immigrants is important, we must also assess these immigrants over a period of time. Only when we are sure that these people have no ulterior motives can they truly acquire Australian citizenship," Arthur nodded slightly with a smile, satisfied as he spoke.
Population is currently one of the key indicators of a country's power. Any major power has a population of tens of millions, even hundreds of millions.
Although Australia has a land area on the scale of a major power, its population size is a significant issue.
Such a population is insufficient to support Australia in becoming a powerful country, let alone rising to the level of a major power.
Thus, Australia must increase its population to over 10 million to have a chance to compete with those major powers.
"Furthermore, while the large population increase is certainly a cause for celebration, we must not forget the welfare policies for the low-income groups. How are our nursing homes and orphanages coming along? How many elderly people and orphans have we helped so far?" Arthur asked.
"Your Highness, the number of our nursing homes and orphanages has initially met the domestic needs. Especially in New South Wales and Victoria, the two most populous states, we now have 11 and 7 nursing homes, respectively. Across all of Australia, we have 30 nursing homes and 51 orphanages, currently sheltering more than 6,000 elderly people and over 10,000 orphans. Given the steady population growth, we can foresee that the number of orphanages and nursing homes will not see drastic increases and will likely stabilize within this range," Minister of Livelihood Walter Black quickly stood and answered.
It was not that Minister Walter was unwilling to continue building more orphanages and nursing homes. However, based on Australia's current population size, the number of these facilities was approaching saturation. Most elderly people and orphans had already been taken in, with only a few left without assistance.
Particularly for orphans, this was one of Arthur's key concerns. After receiving assistance, these orphans would likely have a high degree of loyalty to the royal family and Arthur.
Among these orphans, some might have special talents and would even be directly taken in by the royal family for training, eventually becoming Arthur's left-hand men in the future.
The loyalty of orphans raised from childhood was even higher than that of some talents inherited from the Duke of Arthur.
"Mm, since the number of nursing homes and orphanages has nearly reached saturation, we can slow down the pace of construction for these two projects. The focus should shift to ensuring the welfare provided in the existing facilities," Arthur nodded in agreement with Minister Black's suggestion.
After giving his instructions to Minister Black, Arthur turned his attention to Prime Minister Evan, signaling him to continue.
"In addition to nursing homes and orphanages, our schools and hospitals have also seen remarkable progress. A year ago, we only had one large hospital in each state. Now, we have two hospitals in New South Wales and Victoria, and other states and regions are encouraging the establishment of private clinics. Currently, there are over 100 private clinics across Australia, spread across many cities, which greatly improve our basic healthcare situation," Prime Minister Evan said with a smile.
The construction progress of large hospitals was very slow. To date, Australia only had eight hospitals. However, the number of small private clinics was quite satisfactory. Compared to large hospitals that were lacking in medical staff and equipment, these small clinics were an effective way to improve Australia's basic healthcare environment.
"What about schools? How is our education system progressing? I remember there were plans to establish technical schools. Has the Education Department taken any action on this?" Arthur inquired curiously.
The idea of establishing technical schools was brought up in a previous cabinet meeting by Arthur himself. However, due to various busy matters, he left it to the Education Department and had not followed up on it.
It was only now, when discussing educational changes, that Arthur remembered the earlier plan to establish technical schools.
These schools could provide Australia with skilled workers with excellent practical abilities, which was very important for the development of Australia's various industries. If Australia's industrial development could be supported by a large number of technical talents, the development speed would no longer be limited, and the country could experience a period of explosive growth.
"It's already been completed, Your Highness," Minister of Education Richard replied.
Although technical schools were more for the industrial sector and other departments, because they were still schools, the construction and management were handled by the Education Department.
(End of Chapter)
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