Dear Individual,

Please do not worry - there is hardly a chance for you to receive this good education: I wish I had it while I was growing up, but it is only meant for the very best among us, even Prince Andrew missed on it, now he is in trouble...

"Federal Minister for Cities & Population last week (19 Nov 2019) declared at a Committee for Brisbane event that he believed Melbourne – his home city – was probably 20 years behind in the infrastructure needed to keep pace with its growth."

Alan Tudge is a ridiculous clown. He admits that our cities are failing to keep pace with growth but won't do anything to slow that population growth. The Morrison Government could slash immigration levels tomorrow if it was serious about alleviating urban growth pressures.

Speaking of density, the situation will only worsen under the current mass-immigration Big Australia policy. As economist Leith van Onselen notes:

"In addition to driving up congestion and eroding amenity, Australia’s mass immigration policy is transforming the structure of Australia’s cities from lower density detached housing toward high density. This change is most pervasive in Sydney and Melbourne where both immigration and population growth have been, and are projected to remain, the strongest.

... projections show that, assuming Sydney reaches 10 million people shortly after mid-century, the share of Sydney’s dwelling stock comprised of detached housing will more than halve from 55 per cent in 2016 to 25 per cent in 2057. By contrast, apartments will increase their share of Sydney’s dwelling stock from 30 per cent to 50 per cent over the same period, whereas townhouses will increase their share from 14 per cent to 25 per cent.

The rapid population growth and densification of Australia’s two major cities has also helped drive the cost of housing to extreme levels."

Nor is 'better planning' a panacea to any of these problems. To quote Van Onselen again:

"The often expressed hope that ‘better planning’ will be sufficient to overcome any challenges caused by population growth, fails to grasp that this growth is premised upon a compliant and malleable planning apparatus which enables developers to achieve maximum throughput, at lowest cost and for maximum reward. To do the planning ‘better’ would by definition be costlier and more time-consuming – and thus could not support the current high rates of population increase."

Source: http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2019/12/the-death-of-the-aussie-backyard/