What a sour neo-puritan whinge. Many of the things the authors bemoan about Perth are what makes it a good place to live. So even the working classes have swimming pools out west! I reckon that’s pretty good.

The first and most important thing that can be done to improve the sustainability of cities and of Australian generally is to reduce immigration numbers. The most obvious, practical 'cure' is to reduce or remove the root cause of the ailment.

Another very obvious and practical consideration would be to have obligatory standards applying to the construction of residential accommodation. At present there are voluntary 'standards' such as the Building Code and Australian Standards that are honoured in the avoidance of them. That there are no compulsory minimum building standards, or even the basic requirement to follow manufacturers' installation requirements, was the elephant in the room for the recent insulation installation debacle.

As well as the corner-cutting and poor worksmanship that are endemic in the home building industry, there is scant regard for building homes that suit the environment. Houses without eaves in temperate and tropical areas, western walls with large windows into the sun are common in Australian houses and shouldn't be, leading to discomfort and high energy costs.

Improving the standard, suitability and sustainability of construction is not possible where anyone who can strap on a nail pouch is required to throw up cheap pine and blue-board units to house a too rapidly growing population.

High population growth has required escalating taxes for the present population, examples being crippling hikes in council rates and vehicle registration taxes, to develop new infrastructure. There is no accrual accounting by government to provide for the maintenance and eventual replacement of existing infrastructure, examples being water and sewerage.

The future 'solution' will be more of what is currently happening which is that government services, such as street cleaning and general maintenance of health and educational facilities, will be gradually withdrawn from poorer areas, resulting in the slums of major US cities.

The first and obvious step (as well as a huge save in our taxes) is to:

STOP THE BABY BONUS.

We still need immigrants to make up for the skills shortage, thanks to the short sightedness of previous governments.

And I'll be watching Dick Smith tonight on ABC1 at 8.30 PM, for further ideas.

Sheesh, so those naughty people in Perth are buying air conditioners
in massive numbers.

Perhaps the authors should start to think outside of the square.
Murdoch University claims to be a place of talent. We'd
happily buy solar powered air conditioners, if they were available.
When its 40-45 degrees outside in summer, as happens in WA,
they would work even better!

I think you have buckley's chance of convincing consumers to
go without, now that they have become used to them.

When you look at the design and construction of the houses it is immediately obvious why they are hot boxes requiring expensive airconditioning. It is not as though better design would cost significantly more either and often it is only a question of a slightly different construction approach. Government and industry know that but palms get greased and then there are those campaign funds.

Government wastes our taxes feel good statements and brochures eg http://www.yourhome.gov.au/ but there are no obligatory standards. So the home construction industry is, to all intents and purposes, self-regulating. Government continues to throw problems back to the consumer who, if he cannot afford an expensive architect designed and supervised construction, is obliged to take what is on offer and 'suck it up' as the saying goes.

<< Come on Ludwig mate. I'm sort of in agreement with you, but you do go on. >>

D’ho Hasbeen, you sort of agree with me but you begrudge me the right to express it!

Bloody oath I go on… and on………. and on.

What you’ve read of my comments on OLO is but a small part of my repeatpeatpeatpeated spiel. I’ve only been on OLO for 4.8 years, but I’ve been repeatpeatpeating this message for 20 years!

I hope you saw Dick Smith’s docco and Q&A this evening. At looooong last, my message is sinkin’ in where it counts!

That’s the message about population stabilisation and sustainability. Unfortunately the message about oil dependency is still floating around above peoples’ heads and yet to penetrate their thick skulls.

<< No problem mate. >>

Huuuuge problem actually. We are so totally hooked on oil that our society is in real risk of collapsing if prices rise significantly, let alone if we can’t get enough of the stuff!

WE can’t just adapt overnight. Jobs will be lost en masse. Food supply lines will be severed. The rule of law will collapse.

OK, so this is way over the top……or is it ?? ?