Comments by a panel of top speakers on population growth in South-East Queensland

Professor Brendon Gleeson:

  • Peak Oil Climate Change: our 1st and last line of defense is the suburbs. 
  • We’ve been embarrassed about our urban reality sought to deride a suburban lifestyle
  • Vast majority live in suburbia & this disenfranchises them unjust self-defeating
  • Commonwealth scores a C-
  • Have to deal with our unwillingness to fully embrace the sustainability imperative
  • Population carrying capacity is not a straight-forward thing: We need to drive down the ecological footprint.

Jane O’Sullivan of Sustainable Population Australia

  • The argument for the growth we are now having is based on the need to grow. This is circular. We need to stabilize.
  • The talk about establishing an ideal population first is a distraction from the real issue
  • The real argument is around growth itself and the dishonesty of the justifications for it.
  • We need a national population strategy
  • The costs of growth are not being acknowledged against the purported benefits
  • The costs of growth are much greater than the costs of aging
  • The reason that I think talk about carrying capacity is a distraction is that Gleason is right – there is no figure that you could build concensus on because it depends on so many value judgements.  It’s also evident that we’re well over carrying capacity based on our current behaviour so it becomes a bit academic since we’re not planning to cull people.  Even if we’re arguably under carrying capacity by some definitions it’s easy to demonstrate that being well under carrying capacity is a good thing so that’s no reason to grow.

Councillor Campbell Newman:

  • We need a National Population Policy.
  • I’d like to see population throttled back
  • The Regional Plan isn’t broken but there are a few things to fix.
  • Some projections need challenging (migrant intake intergenerational). The Federal Government has to make the case.
  • Let’s build up Maryborough Rockhampton Bundaberg Logan Ipswich Scenic Rim Lockyer Somerset.
  • Not confident we can provide the infrastructure.
  • Federal Government is “shovelling them in through the door”  We need help to deal with it
  • Commonwealth Government has no involvement. They need to be at the table.

Councillor Bob Abbott Lord Mayor Sunshine Coast

  • We need to be proud of what we deliver for the long term
  • We need a paradigm shift
  • The time for honest open concise debate in our community on population is now
  • Only certainty is people’s lifestyles are being attacked (significant loss of biodiversity pollution in Moreton Bay waiting lists in hospitals price hikes in water power and transport traffic jams)
  • This growth is costing us dearly
  • People are complaining
  • Bernie Salt is the source of a lot of Anna Bligh’s comments
  • We should base population policy of this country on the science of carrying capacity
  • Andrew McNamara a brave politician asked: “Why do politicians encourage population growth when the environment can’t stand it the economy doesn’t need it and the people don’t want it?”

Premier Anna Bligh:

  • Escalating rate in single person dwellings now 24% [Suggestion: Stop penalizing couples over singles]
  • QLD’s population growth is 2.6% 115000 extra people/year
  • 48% overseas migration 35% our breeding 16% interstate migration
  • What is happening is changing very quickly
  • More than 2/3 settle in SE QLD
  • Fracturing of community concensus
  • Neighbourhoods beginning to revolt
  • Developers want more land
  • We were unplanned for most of our history and bad mistakes made (narrowed streets pulled up rail & tram)
  • Many people are calling to slow pace & calling for population caps
  • (On a world & national comparison) Brisbane is a low population density city in a low population density region

Anna Reynolds QLD Newspapers

  • QLD’s fertility rate stable
  • International migration intake rising
  • Interstate migration intake falling

John Brent Mayor of the Scenic Rim

  • We must retain water for food production in SE QLD

Guy Gibson from Lend Lease developer:

  • People consistently prefer detached homes over apartments
  • Australian builders are the most efficient in the Western world at building houses
  • Apartments are 2.5 to 5 times more expensive to build

Ed Smith ?Coffee Industry

  • We need a really decent rail system so people can move around
  • Oil is running out and we are building trade deficits importing oil

Someone:

  • SE QLD now unaffordable to NSW & Victorians to migrate here
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