Opinion: Brisbane height limits go up as quality of life goes down

There’s a trendy new euphemism for transforming the city we love and the lifestyle we enjoy – and not for the better, writes Mike O’Connor.

You may not be familiar with the term “densification”, but it is the means by which the nature of the city we love and the lifestyle we enjoy are set to be transformed – and not for the better.

It used to be called overdevelopment – an ugly word conjuring up images of endless rows of ill-conceived, towering apartment blocks overseeing concrete canyons swirling with dust and detritus, where citizens live in a state of perpetual shadow.

Densification is much more genteel and better suited to the political purpose, which is to drape the unpalatable and the unacceptable in a virtuous cloak and in doing so, make it sound as if our politicians are doing us a favour.

The Albanese government has created a smokescreen for this attack on our way of life with its Big Australia policy.

It can deny it but the figures tell the story. Net overseas migration – the difference between people arriving and leaving – this year is expected to be 400,000 and next year 315,000.

To place that in perspective the combined population of Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton and Toowoomba is 588,000 while Brisbane is home to around 2.5 million people.

Albanese and company like these big numbers because migrants will get jobs and start paying income tax. They will also buy things which will increase corporate profits and increase company tax.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner (left) and Planning Minister Steven Miles are proponents of densification

The corporate world likes it because it lifts its profits and inflates the labour pool which reduces upward pressure on wage levels.

Anything missing from this win-win equation? That’s right – the feelings of little old you and me, the people who call Australia home who haven’t been asked if they want millions more people descending on their cities.

This exercise in mass migration also conveniently overlooks the extra strain that these numbers place on public hospitals, classroom sizes, public transport and road systems.

Where are they all going to live? The increased demand for housing pushes up rents and house prices and suddenly we have a housing crisis.

To solve the “housing crisis” we need more homes. We could halt migration for a period but that won’t happen for the reasons listed above.

How, then, for the body politic and business to take advantage of this crisis?

Solution? Densification! Denounce the creation of new suburbs as ”sprawl” and instead announce that for Brisbane to be a truly progressive city and to help the homeless we have to go up and up and up, the only limit being the stratosphere.

This will mean ripping up carefully considered town planning regulations and neighbour development plans and giving the green light to developers to go where up until now – even with a pro-development council in City Hall – they have not dared to tread.

Apartment blocks in Brisbane’s West End

To make this appear faintly respectable, reference is made to the housing crisis. We’ll build all these amazing towers and shazam! Nobody’s sleeping in their cars any more.

What wonderful people we are. Surely our social conscience shines like a beacon in the night.

When it comes to the new religion of densification, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner appears to be a convert. Announcing the trashing of height limits at West End – they like to call it Kurilpa but we really know it as West End – where 90-storey towers will be possible instead of 15 to 30 storeys, he said Kurilpa “will become a beautiful community. Our Kurilpa plan is an anti-sprawl approach.” The locals, simple souls that they, are might argue that it’s already a beautiful community.

Deputy Premier and Planning Minister Steven Miles chimed in: “Getting more social and affordable housing off the ground is another ongoing focus for our government to ensure more Queenslanders have a roof over their heads.”

Reality check – only a handful of these apartments will be rent-subsidised, and then only for five years. The rest will be priced according to the market.

It’s another win-win equation. Council gets rates and development charges from hundreds of units stacked into the clouds and the developer makes a mint.

Something missing here? Yep, it’s little old you and me again, trying to cling to our unique Brisbane lifestyle now threatened by densification. Beware – they’re coming for a suburb near you. It’s only a matter of time. They’ve had a taste now. This is just the beginning.