Australia’s projected population growth has taken a battering from COVID-19, which will see migration slow and future economic growth struggle. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg handed down the 2021 Intergenerational Report (IR) on June 28 as the subject of his address to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA). The IGR reports, which former Liberal Treasurer Peter Costello first introduced in 2002, provides a 40-year outlook on the country’s economy and its impact on the budget. The report found that Australia’s population would reach 38.8 million by 2060-61, in contrast to earlier predictions—according to the last report in 2015—that Australia’s population would reach 40 million by 2054-55. It also found that the federal budget would remain in deficit for the next four decades, while net debt would continue to hover between 30 to 40 percent of GDP. “This is the first time there has been a downward revision of the long-term …