Victoria: open borders

“Interstate raiders buying up Melbourne properties”, 2/4. More unwelcome competition for housing – but Premier Ted Bailleu reveals his true colors in this remark:

Despite pressure on housing affordability from rapid population growth, Premier Ted Baillieu said he was not about to close Victoria’s borders. He said he would never “put up the stop sign” to curb population growth, but warned Victorians will have to “endure” the problems of a growth rate that saw Melbourne increase by more than 1500 people a week last financial year. “You’d like to think, in government, that you could invest for the future. We’ll be investing to catch [up] because the previous Labor government allowed Victoria to fall behind,” he said.

Well, Melbourne is ruined. No hope from him, then, of curbing growth – just the opposite, continuing the insane growth mania begun by Jeff Kennett’s government and continued by Labor. Melbourne’s population is closing in on Sydney’s.

I wonder if one solution might be to introduce some sort of residential permit – that if a person wishes to live in Melbourne, they would need to apply; if there were no room they would be refused. Preference would be given to Australian citizens, and then long-term residents of the city first. The State Government should, ideally, refuse to issue any more land releases to developers, and set a firm boundary to limit expansion. I doubt anyone would have the courage to take those measures, though – there would be an outcry of “We should be able to live where ever we want!” A hotel, though, can’t accommodate an infinite number of people, and neither can a city – not if it is to stay liveable rather than turn into an overcrowded slum.

Trying to get people to move to regional centers is no solution – these are often poorly serviced and, despite vague Government assurances, will remain so for a long time. Most people thus tend to want to live in well-serviced areas, which the established regions of Melbourne provide. Successive governments have done a poor job of managing growth – it is a game of catch-up, and they never quite manage to.

Dick Smith suggested that families be discouraged from having more than two children, though the Herald-Sun article linked was something of a misquote, according to this post at PublicPopForum. Some clueless fool did respond:

MacroPlan economist Brian Haratsis said Mr Smith was an alarmist. A population of 40 million was inevitable and that “the only choice is if we want a really big Australia of 40 million to 80 million”. He said population debate in Australia had been stolen by “anti-growth people with a Green sentiment”.

80 million? What has he been smoking? Much of Australia is infertile desert, so populations are mainly limited to thin strips of land along the coastline. Where is he planning to fit them all, and where will their food come from?

19/3:

Coalition on notice on population growth

Finally someone in the state Labor opposition has faced up to why it lost the election (“Melbourne growth got away from us”, The Age, 18/3).

The rapid population growth that, as premier, John Brumby promoted and revelled in brought him down. He mistakenly thought that by packing people in around public transport corridors and pushing Melbourne ever further outwards without putting in more infrastructure, he could go on forever overcrowding us.

He was wrong. If you increase the population you have to also increase the infrastructure by the same amount otherwise you end up with overcrowded roads and trains and schools and hospitals and pressure on electricity and water and sewerage.

Because of John Brumby we have 20 per cent more people and a corresponding deficiency in infrastructure. The Coalition government is well advised to take note and slow down the growth until they catch up with infrastructure, or they will suffer the same fate.

– Mary Drost, Planning Backlash, Camberwell

26/3:

Sham consultation on sustainable population

I have read nearly all the (85+) published submissions that are supposed to be informing the government’s sustainable population strategy. Only business-based submissions support rampant population growth as experienced over the past 10 or so years. The only consequences they acknowledge is how such growth will be utopian for us all.

It is also clear from the framework that the government has no intention of putting the issues of sustainability into a scientific context - carrying capacity, water and food considerations, climate change impacts and so on. The government wants to leave sustainability in a nebulous form so it can’t be measured.

Some scientific facts need to be published on the realities of endless population growth and then an informed public should be able to vote in a referendum regarding future population outcomes for Australia.

Such decisions are far too important to be determined by the big end of town and politicians who are the puppets of business. The strategy bears all the hallmarks of becoming a sham consultation process.

– Tony Smith, Burwood

29/3:

High price of growth

The real impediment to fair housing prices is our population growth, boosted by immigration. Manipulating demand to outstrip supply means that competition for housing guarantees rising prices. The demand is ongoing and guaranteed.

Once petrol prices rise above $2 a litre, those who have bought in semi-rural and outer suburban areas will be punished due to lack of public transport.

The lack of true industry and manufacturing in this state means an unhealthy reliance on population growth. It is unsustainable and misanthropic - environmentally, socially and economically.

– Vivienne Ortega, Heidelberg Heights

H-S, 30/3:

Growth comes at a price

As a boy growing up in Brouin I loved fishing the small creeks for trout, blackfish and eels, and a special way to make some pocket money was to pick the abundant mushrooms from farmers’ paddocks and sell them by the roadside.

I now find it disturbing when driving back to our home in Bairnsdale to see the creeks and so much prime farming land being swallowed up by development of new estates.

– Vic Smythe, Bairnsdale