Thanks All - I have read with interest your comments and agree with specific views on Immigration and sustainability. What could we (as individuals or a broader community) do to influence those who are meant keep the government honest i.e. the opposition, the democrats, the greens and or the independents.

How do we develop an advocacy group that stops the wreck and ruin of this country? What other forums could we use to highlight some of the policy gaps associated with housing, immigration and the rise and rise of 'foreign ownership of Australian property not to mention automatic access to permanent residency - thanks to some 350, 000 students and counting.

As a reminder - the NSW Minister for Planning is Kristina Kerscher KENEALLY. Her seat is Heffron which is located in SE Sydney (Alexandria etc).

It would be a good idea if her primary vote was obliterated in the next State election.

Yet another article that views the housing problem with blinkered vision forgetting all about the real driving force behind the housing problems faced in all Australian cities - ie growth in housing demand, I repeat DEMAND. It is NOT a contraction in supply that forces prices up to ridiculous levels and leads planners to a lose-lose choice between infill or yet more sprawl.

As Ludwig and others take great pains to point out it is all about population growth and the complete refusal of our worthless governments to recognize that fact.

"Australia is a continent sized country with total urbanised area of only 0.3 per cent." Yay for a rational argument! Because only 0.3 percent is suburban, lets grow it all over our last agricultural zones around our city centres? Hah! And exactly what percentage of Australia IS green and can actually GROW food?

Hey, if you want to expand suburbia, the most resource greedy and energy intensive form of habitation ever invented, out across a significant part of Australia, why not legislate that all NEW development occurs in the greater 98% of our country.... the DESERT!

What an absolutely moronic arguent! We are approaching peak oil, peak water, peak wood, peak everything as far as I can tell, and this guy wants to expand exactly the wrong living arrangement. 1/10 for effort (I was able to debunk the whole premise of his argument in the first sentence), 0/10 for rational argument and information.

What exactly do opponents of density housing expect the State Government to do with the increasing population?. 1000 a week, we're told! The taxpayers dollars are limited, to be funding major infrastructure more than 50 klm from the CBD. Most Victorians expect state of the art health facilities, but in terms of staffing and providing major medical equipment, we simply do not have the financial capacity for it. The same goes for our schools, staffing and technology costing millions of dollars, long after the building is funded....that's the easy part! it's the ongoings that cost money.

The more one spreads the population out, without the public transport system to sustain services to those far flung communities, the thinner the resources to service those distances.

Melbourne 2030 had a lot going for it, but some selfish individuals don't want to share the limited resources offered by inner Melbourne hospitals and schools, not to mention buses, trams and trains.

Be prepared to go up and not out. Make provision for open spaces to allow the sunshine in by not building up to the footpath and adjacent the neighbouring highrise....spread the density throughout the suburbs along the growth corridors and near public transport routes!

There is a truism here folks, You can only spend the dollar once!

So! you make it count! You use the dollar to create facilities that will service the most number of people with the very best equipment available, and being selective, only the best will do!

Mary Walsh

*Be prepared to go up and not out.*

Well lets take a look at how people lived, before all that cheap
oil changed things. Not too many high rises then. It was basically
at the village level. A quarter acre block, some veggies, some
chooks, some fruit trees, dad worked locally and the kids went
to school locally. The village doctor was around, for local health
too. What we had were a great deal less beaurocrats, sitting in
offices, watching the traffic go by.

Given that the era of cheap oil is nearly over, living in a human
zoo depending on cheap oil for supplies from toilet paper to
functioning lifts, is maybe not the smartest thing to do.

But learn the hard way.