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Matthew Sullivan
One industry pundit has welcomed the government’s sustainable population strategy, labelling it a ‘sensible initiative’.
According to Urban Taskforce’s chief executive Aaron Gadiel, the sustainable population strategy avoids imposing any damaging population caps on the nation or on the major cities.
"We're pleased that the Federal Government has walked away from the notion that some parts of Australia are at 'carrying capacity'," Mr Gadiel said.
"The strategy correctly observes that changes in the way resources are used and developments in technology allow us to sensibly grow without unsustainable impacts.
"Sustainability is a highly subjective idea, but we can see that people are voting with their feet to be part of many growth communities across Australia.
"As the strategy says, sustainable communities are those that have the characteristics that make them places where people want to work, live and build a future.
"It's the residents, prospective residents, workers and prospective workers of a community that must ultimately judge its sustainability, not Federal Government population planners."
In March the Urban Taskforce released the People Power report which modelled the economic consequences if the sustainable population strategy was used to freeze the size of Australia's major cities.
The report found that a government policy capping a city's population at current levels will lead to an 18.3 per cent decline for Sydney's residential property prices over ten years.
Mr Gadiel said that major cities were the most productive places for people to live and work and would continue to be the engine room of Australia population and economic growth.
"If government policy restricted Australians' access to these places, more people would be forced to settle in areas where they are less productive, earn less and have more restricted choice of goods and services," he said.
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