"Your Highness, because the current number of workers and laborers in Australia means we cannot carry out large-scale railway and highway construction plans, our primary goal last year was to repair the streets and roads in each city, as well as build connecting roads between important regions and cities," Minister Conrad stood and replied.
Road construction could also be considered a major project, especially given Australia's complicated terrain.
Combined with the disadvantage of a sparse population, this meant that when large-scale construction was carried out domestically, there were no longer enough people to work on the roads being built.
This also meant that the Ministry of Transport's main task was to renovate existing urban roads, at most adding roads connecting industrial districts with other important areas.
Arthur nodded with a slight headache, his brows involuntarily knitting together.
The population was currently one of the most important factors restricting Australia's development. Although immigrants from Europe could alleviate the problem, they could not improve it completely.
What Australia currently lacked—indeed, what it was severely lacking—was a large underclass population to serve as labor for Australia's industrial development and various construction projects.
Immigrants from Europe mostly played the role of ordinary civilians. If they were exploited too harshly, it would instead reduce their recognition of the country and affect social stability.
Australia had to import people from a foreign nation with a large population that could also be exploited without restraint. That was the condition for improving Australia's industry and overall development.
At present, the sources that could solve Australia's labor shortage in the short term were, besides Australia's own New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies colonies in Southeast Asia.
New Guinea had only a little over nine hundred thousand indigenous people. Although they could solve some of the labor shortage, completely resolving