So depressing which ever way you interpret it. Obviously the solution is just to stop pumping urban growth - whether upwards or outwards.

The argument for enforced higher urban density has always been nonsense in Australia. We certainly should provide for people’s different housing needs. Some want inner-urban apartments, some want villa units, and some want nice gardens. All this is reasonable, but given that we can accommodate the entire population of Australia at Melbourne’s urban density of c1,566 persons per square kilometre in only 14,385 square kilometres, leaving 99.8 per cent of the country completely empty of people, there is hardly a case for forcing people into ever smaller blocks of land or into vertical living. Nor is urban sprawl the consequence of not having higher density. There is no reason at all for Melbourne to have 8 million people in it – ever. The Hamer Liberal government established a green wedge and development corridor strategy for Melbourne 40 years ago. Any population beyond what that provided for can be accommodated in provincial cities.

There are more facts here:
http://melbourneurbanist.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/what-should-we-do-about-melbourne/