Monday, January 24, 2011

ADELAIDE AND CANBERRA BEAT THE BIG CITIES FOR LIVEABILITY

ADELAIDE AND CANBERRA BEAT THE BIG CITIES FOR LIVEABILITY

It is noteworthy that a survey of more than 4000 Australians from Australia’s eight capital cities surveyed by the Property Council preferred living in Adelaide and Canberra to living in Australia’s bigger capitals – Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. It is also noteworthy that Australia’s largest city – Sydney – was rated by residents as the worst.

Adelaide and Canberra rated better than the big cities on issues such as roads and traffic congestion, environmental sustainability, and access to affordable housing.   This shows yet again that bigger is not better – people would be happier and better served if our capital cities stopped growing, and they are certainly not being well served by the rapid growth rate we have at the moment.

KELVIN THOMSON MP
Member for Wills
Monday 24th January, 2011

5 comments:

  1. Canberra might have a relatively good quality of living but housing costs are now so disgracefully prohibitive many who want to live there cannot afford now it. This may make it an unhealthily 'elite' city before much longer. Well of immigrants can but there but traditional Aussie battlers are being squeezed cruelly.

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  2. Get in quick, Canberra is hell-bent on becoming just like a "real" city. Dirty and crowded. Housing is already at sydney prices, the roads get gridlocked during the rush hours, and the developers are getting very rich.

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  3. We all know that bigger is not better and this survey confirms this fact. However, big business by its very nature wants big and is harassing the government to achieve this outcome.

    Whether politicians will listen to this is another story. KKennealy dismissed the survery by asking why more people didn't live in Adelaide.

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  4. All I want to say is that it is amazing to me that Kelvin seems to be the only one who can see this or sees it as important. Affordable housing is of immense concern, I would have thought. I vaguely heard some comments on ABC Radio news from someone claiming that not enough land is being made available and that people are being charged for things they shouldn't, so at least they can see that it's an important issue but possibly have a developer's point of view that is blind to uncomfortable facts, especially when 'sustainability' in the face of higher oil prices is concerned or should we ever put a sensible price on carbon.

    Regards, Warwick

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  5. Ant is dead right on this one. Canberra's political leaders should take note of this survey and shelve misguided campaigns to grow Canberra at all costs.

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