A story in tomorrow's Australan describes a future where 30 million will be living in four super cities ... Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. An email alert gives me the headline and a teaser paragraph.
There are obvious problems, changes and trends associated with this, including:
- A significant part of the population growth in super cities will come from regional and rural drift, draining life, vitality, purpose and economic viability from large areas of Australia.
- Population drift from regional and rural Australia will likely lead to increasing corporatisation, mechanisation and systemisation of food production, mostly foreign owned.
- Population drift will be exacerbated by poor immigration policy decisions but will still occur with effective immigration policies
- There will be continual pressure for infrastructure upgrades to facilitate urban sprawl, urban densification, travel efficiencies, services and jobs growth within the super cities, and those infrastructure upgrades will become ever more complicated and costly.
- Evolution in how Australia's GDP is earned, with winners and losers in sectors and industries that dominate.
Is this trend a bad, good or indifferent thing? Is this trend what a majority of future Australians might have wanted?
Without recognising this emerging trend it will continue to unfold..
Without "interventions" this trend is probably unstoppable.
I know a few of you will roll your eyes at me from here lol. If the above future is to be avoided and a different future is to be created there will need to be determined, visionary and innovative interventions.
An East Coast Very Fast Train is exactly the enabling infrastructure that will allow diverse, vibrant, liveable urban development throughout SouthEastern Australia. It would be a game changer allowing up to 8 new regional cities just between Sydney and Melbourne and woud take the pressure off the super cities. The project can be self funded through land development and livelihood value capture and offers 100's of billions in government savings in reduced infrastructure upgrades in the super cities.
Cheers
Dex
