Brogden aims to capitalise on Sydney's urban stress

In his latest statement on the issue, in November 2002 Carr called for a one-third reduction in the national migrant intake, bringing the figure down to 80 000, to relieve pressure on the Sydney metropolitan area. Sydney's population strain, he claims, is a federal responsibility and there is little the state government can do about it – a convenient attitude in the lead up to a state election.

Better to address reality, not assumptions

The state Opposition Leader believes that the "Australian dream" of owning a house and garden in the suburbs is still alive. This appears to be an assumption on Brogden's part and it is, at best, only partially true. The fact is that the single-household, detached dwelling may even be a housing preference in decline. The evidence for this is the people voting with their bank loans in choosing the same medium-density living that Brogden finds so electorally distasteful. That is why Sydney is passing through a boom in apartment living, why so many young couples, singles, middle aged and older citizens are foregoing the house and garden, with all its maintenance, for the ease of an apartment within reasonable distance of the city, the beach, the railway station or the workplace. This is a trend that will gain momentum as the 'baby boomer' generation ages. Among the younger demographic it is a trend driven by Australia's shrinking household size and the growing number of households without children or in which children have been postponed.

Irrespective of the validity of the Australian dream of house and garden, there are alternative 'real' issues of greater importance to home buyers that Brogden might more profitably address. Growing numbers of first-home buyers, for instance, are being priced out of the metropolitan housing market by runaway house and land values. They cannot afford to buy a house in the established suburbs or even in new, urban fringe estates where affordable housing has traditionally been found. So where are they going in search of affordable housing? To the satellite cities within commuting distance of Sydney. Centres such as Gosford and the Illawarra, where they push up local housing prices and face long work-day commutes to the city.

Opposition far from total

Opposition to medium-density is widespread but far from complete. Some local governments, such as South Sydney, see an influx of thousands of new residents countering trends associated with their existing lower-income demographic occupying old and sometimes decaying industrial suburbs and a declining rating base.

In parts of Sydney, old industrial sites are being moulded into medium-density apartment developments; many complete with ground-level shops and open space. What was in the 1960s the British Automotive Industries car assembly plant and later a Navy stores, for instance, is now the Green Square development. Not far away the old ACI glass factory and Resch's brewery has become a major socially successful apartment development. The area adjacent to the new Wolli Creek railway station and open land to the immediate south of Sydney airport is soon to undergo mixed commercial/ residential development and will be home to thousands of new residents.

Such large-scale developments bring a new dynamic to old working-class and industrial areas, creating demand for the facilities the residents prefer: cafes, coffee shops, entertainment venues, delicatessens, specialty shops – and in so doing bring change to down-at-heel areas and a larger rating base to councils.

Where are the solutions?

Reducing the pressure on urban-fringe land and reducing the rate of urban sprawl are the rationales of Labour's urban consolidation policy. The government rightly argues that housing more people in medium-density developments around major public-transport nodes such as railway stations reduces the impetus to develop farmland into sprawling, poorly serviced single-dwelling estates. There is a common sense to this because if farmland continues to be lost to development then Sydney will be forced to import its fresh food from further afield and prices will rise.

While enlightened architectural and urban design, combined with legislation mandating a more holistic approach to development by local government, might take into account the availability of infrastructure, traffic flows and the creation of public open space to improve medium-density development in the suburbs, a different approach is necessary when dealing with land on the urban fringe if sprawl is to be reduced and valuable agricultural land conserved.

Here, in the very areas losing agricultural and bush land to single-family dwelling estates, a better approach might be for the state government to carry out land-quality surveys to identify areas suitable for agriculture and those of marginal agricultural quality. Landuse zoning would then set aside marginal land for urban development when infrastructure such as energy, water, transport and sewage became available. Land of prime agricultural value would be zoned as such and urban development disallowed.

The long-term pattern would be one of village-like settlements with medium-density and other housing options providing a large enough population to support small businesses providing services to the settlement. Surrounded by agricultural and bush land, such urban centres might go some way to provide the village-like environment and sense of community that many Australians say they would prefer while conserving agricultural land for its best use.