We can't go on trashing our natural environment with 'urban sprawl' indefinitely when we don't have enough water for our existing population and native fauna such as koalas and sugar gliders are being driven to extinction in South East Queensland. Urban sprawl driven by overpopulation is what caused the collapse of past civilisations, including the ancient Mayans and the Chaco Anasazi of pre-Columbian North America (see http://candobetter.org/about#chaco).

The time to stop growing the population growth which imperils our environment and drives up the cost of housing is now.

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Country Gal, I strenuously disagree that we should be doing anything to attract new investors to the industry.

Having housing considered an investment opportunity instead of a basic human need is what got us into the mess we are in in the first place.

The Housing Trust of South Australia provided good quality affordable housing to all sectors of South Australian society for decades and never cost taxpayers a cent. Money which would otherwise have been unproductively invested in property speculation was, instead, invested in South Australia's manufacturing sector. This experience shows conclusively that, if governments have the political will, they could easily find ways to house the whole community at far less cost than the cost we now bear, and we would no longer be obliged to support the profligate lifestyles of vast armies of real estate agents, land speculators, landlords, housing financiers, mortgage brokers, etc, etc.