Emptying the Haunted Air

Arcology

This evening’s report on that nirvana of news and current-affairs, Lateline, about population growth and urban sprawl in Australia’s major cities, made for bonerifically nifty viewing – and not only because it featured a debate between two of Australia’s most intelligent, erudite former leaders, Bob Carr and Steve Bracks, both of whom possessed the rare quality in politics of knowing when to jump ship.

The report was framed in light of comment Kevin Rudd made weeks ago, in which he expressed his idiosyncratic, bland pleasure about the forecasts for Australia’s population growth: 35 million by the middle of the century. He wants Australia to be a ‘big country’.

It is the geographic and social implications of this ‘big country’ that are at the centre of the debate. Carr was, as ever, doubtful of the necessity for feeding a population boom. The most interesting point he raised questioned the practice of boosting immigration to satiate skill shortages. New citizens bring co-dependents, who in turn create other skills gaps. Bracks was far more optimistic, speaking of the opportunities afforded by population growth. To this, Carr replied that population growth will increase urban density and sprawl.

It is in quarter-acre sparsity that Carr, and many others, it seems, locate Australia’s quality of life. The problem is, this notion has been living on borrowed time since the beginning of Australia’s port-WW2 migration program. Naturally, a decade of uninterrupted economic growth and countless government hand-outs and tax-cuts have acted as a sort of saline solution to this dying ideal, but the arguments to maintain it now seem really scant.

This is all really precious, coming from somebody who grew up in this lifestyle, so I leave the rest to city planners, environmentalists and economists. Watch the report. Suffice to say, now the most popular Prime Minister in Australian history has signalled that the Federal Government will take a bigger hand in city planning, the time has never been better to realise my dream of the Sydney Arcology!

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