Population Growth Driving Infrastructure Deficit

Josh Gordon is absolutely right to raise the problems associated with Melbourne's rapid population growth of the past decade. It is absolutely correct that politicians and economists are allowed to get away with murder by talking about economic growth when they should be required to talk about GDP per capita. It is like saying that because more people have moved into your street, that the street has more money, and therefore you are richer. You are not personally richer at all – indeed the probability is that your street is more crowded and that in amenity you are poorer.

Melbourne's rapid population growth is the reason there is an infrastructure problem. The Queensland academic Jane O'Sullivan has done research which shows that in a stable population the community needs to set aside around 2 per cent of its income to repair and replace ageing infrastructure, but that in a community growing by 1 per cent it needs to set aside 3 per cent of its income to keep up, and in a community growing by 2 per cent it needs to set aside 4 per cent of its income. The infrastructure task doubles, with only 2 per cent extra people to pay for it.

 
Little wonder that Councils and State Governments in rapidly growing populations are unable to keep up. It is not that they are lazy or incompetent or corrupt, it is that the task is too big for anyone. This is also why we are seeing so many Councillors and State Governments having short political life expectancies. If they worked on getting the Federal Government to reduce the greatly increased net migration rate of recent years, their job would become achievable and their political life expectancy would increase.

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/governments-cannot-keep-using-population-growth-to-inflate-economic-figures-20160412-go4wxz.html