Credit: Cathy Wilcox
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It may well be that Australia is an “outlier” regarding capital city housing density (Comment, 3/12). Governments are acting on such comparisons. The concern for many of us is that the rush to push for more housing is not matched by recognition of the fact that our infrastructure needs are not keeping up and that environmental, planning and design standards are being disregarded.
Rosemary Kiss, Rippleside
Let’s learn from overseas
Considering medium density housing developments within a 15 kilometre radius of major cities would have a dramatic effect on relieving our housing crisis. As long as they are well-designed and built, with sufficient natural light, north facing where possible, with space for families and have communal gardens or outside space, they would be attractive and liveable. Not everyone wants a large garden but they do want something appealing, close to transport and related services and not like the wastelands with no facilities built on the outskirts of our cities. Let’s learn from overseas but build to our conditions.
Denise Stevens, St Kilda
Apartment residents want quality
Is the Victorian opposition leader looking to pick a fight with the Allan government over apartments? Jess Wilson says that not all Victorians want to live in apartments. Wilson wants ″to provide a choice″. Yet, more than 85 per cent of dwellings in Victoria are detached or semi-detached houses. Yes, some people prefer live in houses. Meanwhile, there are plenty of people who want the choice of living in an apartment. They want housing that will not cripple them financially, where they can walk to schools, parks, cafes, public transport, etc, and where they feel much safer due to other people living close by. And they don’t want the significant expense of having to run a car.
The issue that unites people who prefer to live in apartments is quality. They want well-constructed buildings without defects, decent size rooms, natural light and cross-ventilation. Unfortunately, successive governments have not done well on quality. So please, Wilson, if you want to pick a fight with Labor, there’s an angle for you. Let’s have a ″race to the top″ on the quality of new apartments.
Andrea Bunting, Brunswick
Construction has its environmental cost
The problem we have in making our cities denser is that we will be destroying the trees, gardens and open space that will be essential if we are to safely live with more extreme temperatures and rainfall events resulting from climate change. An increasing proportion of hard surfaces will absorb more heat and increase the likelihood of flooding. Instead, improving the quality of and access to our natural environment will enhance wellbeing and reduce the risk of local flora and fauna extinctions. Crucially, we cannot continue to grow our population indefinitely in a country with finite and depleted resources. Our collective health and wellbeing, and that of our descendants, must be our highest priority.
Jennie Epstein, Little River
No benefits to reducing car parking
Reducing car parking in inner city developments is government policy based on lunacy. Reduce off street parking spaces and you increase congestion. High-medium density dwellers will park in the street. People from outside inner city precincts cannot shop there as there will be no parking, thereby impacting business. It won’t be a benefit to local residents; it will become an access nightmare with no parking. Whoever made up these policies has no sense of reality. The whole housing affordability and lack of adequate housing will not be solved by building ghettos.
Keith Hawkins, Point Lonsdale
THE FORUM
Fighting the system
Following the release of a report on ″jobs for mates″ by former public service commissioner Lynelle Briggs (″Trust lost over plum jobs for political mates″, 3/12), we find that a lot of jobs on independent government boards seem to be filled by people with strong links to political parties. Think of public service people who have worked for years and slowly risen to the top only to find that there is a glass ceiling in place. Above that glass ceiling are those who know a lot less, have poorer skills and will delegate work down to those below, while claiming all the credit for things that work and blaming their underlings for stuff-ups. Now, replace the words ″public service people″ with the word ″women″. Sound familiar?
Greg Tuck, Warragul
AI, that’s frightening
I don’t like the look of that AI ape that’s coming for us all (Wilcox, 3/12) while our political masters say she’ll be right mate and the tech bros laugh all the way to the bank.
Jane Ross, San Remo
Public transport dreaming
Members of the Victorian government need to get out more. They would see that streets in the vicinity of public transport are clogged by parked cars and public transport is already packed at peak hours for students and workers. They would also see that this is a vast city in a vast country and public transport simply isn’t a realistic option for many of the journeys people need to take. I’m all for public transport but until such time as it will serve us adequately – and that’s not likely in the lifetime of any development built in the foreseeable future – people will be buying cars and will need space where they live to park them safely.
On-site home and business parking must be retained and the roll-out of EV purchase and infrastructure must be encouraged and supported until some far-off magical time when public transport works for us all far more often than it does now.
Margaret Callinan, Hawthorn
Sustainable growth
High density living may lead to some efficiencies and sounds good in economic theory. However, the environmental impacts of having more and more humans in smaller spaces has to be considered. Even in Australia with relatively low urban population densities, people have issues with access to health and education, transport, loss of green spaces and waste management. Our increasing overall population is not solving these issues but is exacerbating them and contributing to the global scenario of higher temperatures, more fires, floods, droughts and pollution.
On a global scale, the United Nations report on sustainable development goals, “Sustainable cities and Communities” shows the social and environmental problems resulting from increased urbanisation. In Australia, these problems have not reached the same proportions as in many of the heavily populated Asian countries.
Given the increasing occurrence of environmental catastrophes and social disasters caused by climate change, we should abandon the “growth at any cost” paradigm that underlies current economics and take a more holistic approach to planning that includes how humans can exist sustainably in their environment.
Leigh Ackland, Deepdene
Cart, horse, cart
Your correspondent (Letters, 3/12) is jumping the gun when he suggests that Donald Trump would simply pardon Pete Hegseth if Hegseth were found guilty of killing civilians. The only way Trump could pardon Hegseth is if he were convicted in a US Federal Court, which would require a Department of Justice prosecution that the Trump administration would never facilitate in the first place.
Dennis Dodd, Shepparton
Sydney v Melbourne
The new Melbourne tunnel is a welcome addition to the rail network and will enhance travel options. However, it’s a bit premature for The Age (2/12) to compare the Melbourne system with the world’s best. It would be more relevant to compare the system with another one, much closer, serving a similar population.
The Sydney train system carries about a million passengers each weekday; Melbourne’s carries less than half that number. Sydney’s services are more frequent and there are many more express services to outer suburbs. Sydney’s stations are better presented and maintained. The third phase of Sydney’s first driverless and fast metro line is under test; already, ridership is around 1.3 million a week on the first two stages. Construction is advanced on two other metro lines. It looks like Sydney’s new second airport will have trains before work on the line from Sunshine to Tullamarine has started.
Southern Cross station is a noisy and smelly place as it plays host to diesel VLocity trains that in large part run to fringe metropolitan areas on lines that should have been electrified long ago.
Anthony McIlwain, Trinity Beach, Qld
No logic on gas
If there is such concern at climate change why is Australia selling off its gas to overseas countries who then resell it at a profit to countries who use it to create climate problems?
Australian gas should be used in Australia, if at all. There seems no reason why work cannot be done on making gas use more climate friendly and stop this big rip-off by electricity companies who have no competition bar the under-resourced and under used renewables.
An inquiry needs to be made into Australia’s need and uses of its finite resources and a ban placed on selling what can be used for Australians’ benefit to overseas companies, who make a very nice profit from those resources.
Doris LeRoy, Altona
Level voting field, please
It has been said “eternal vigilance is the price of freedom”. Our democratic traditions require we monitor encroachments upon it. The Age editorial outlines one such example (3/12). It explains the loophole in the 2018 donation caps legislation. Seems the “vigilance” failed, but then the legislation came to pass because it advantaged the two major parties, because their “nominated entities” which fund them were exempted from the caps.
The voting public is already sceptical of politics and politicians. Democracy can only flourish with more participation by the public. They need to see that justice is done and that newer parties or independent candidates have unfettered access to a fair chance of being elected. It is to be hoped that the February High Court challenge by the two independent candidates is successful.
Jan Marshall, Brighton
Need to show humanity
Despite the rain on a recent day, I was out. So was he: the local Big Issue vendor, my friend Gerry. Standing in front of the public Christmas decorations, it having been a fortnight since we’d last spoken, I asked how he was. He told me a shopkeeper had ordered him to move on – that he wasn’t allowed to stand there and that he didn’t want to see him. Big Issue vendors are permitted to work on public land, yet for the third time in recent years Gerry has been dismissed, ridiculed and reduced to less than what he is: a human being. People feel “mis-seen” when they’re seen not as individuals but as members of some category. Gerry told me he used the term “riff-raff” to ease the shopkeeper’s conscience – but is this really how Melburnians see Big Issue vendors, and anyone who isn’t themselves? One in seven Australians live in poverty; the least we can do is recognise their humanity.
Anders Ross, Heidelberg
Housing solutions
In the 1950s, I joined an international company and was posted to Holland for an extended period. At this time Europe, and Holland in particular was in a rebuilding phase, suffering drastic housing shortages because of damages resulting from wartime activities.
One major city at least (The Hague), addressed the accommodation shortage proactively by the imposition of strict regulations.
All accommodation, including occupied houses and apartments, were identified and assessed for their capability of accommodating additional residents, both families and single persons. There was, of course, an emphasis on empty accommodation units.
Under city council directions, with penalties for non-compliance, residents were directed to lease or rent unused accommodation units to homeless individuals or families. Problem solved.
Empty housing units as reported here in Victoria could be assigned similarly.
It may seem a draconian measure but no one or any organisation has yet put forward a solution to our housing crisis which suggests a time frame in which our current difficulties can be overcome.
Think about it, or a variant which more equates with an approach suitable for the 2020s, and do something.
Eric Garner, Capel Sound
Parking the problem
If you’re having trouble finding a car park at the train station now imagine what it will be like in the future (″Shake-up to scrap rules on car parks″, 3/12). It will also present challenges for families looking for affordable apartments if they have no room for a car to take children to pre-school, visit their GP – even the shopping.
These apartment dwellers will not have access to street parking as many inner city councils refuse parking permits for multi-unit developments constructed since 2004. So where will they park?
The government’s assumptions are ill-founded and will have long-lasting ramifications.
Sally Davis, Malvern East
AND ANOTHER THING
Foreign affairs
Message for Vladimir Putin: They are called ″Peace″ Talks
Jos Vandersman, Lilydale
Why isn’t the US legal system being used to bring alleged Venezuelan drug smugglers to justice rather than to have them summarily executed?
Peter Baddeley, Portland
The US has an interesting way of cementing relationships, especially its use of war games with Venezuela.
Bryan Fraser, St Kilda West
The American Secretary of War Pete Hegseth explains that the decision to make two hits on a civilian boat off the coast of Venezuela was made in the “fog of war”. Why then strike again?
David Baylis, Drouin East
Furthermore
It’s wonderful to see women’s sport get so much more promotion, but why do so many of the women’s teams have male coaches?
David Ginsbourg, Bentleigh East
Liberal probe blames Trump effect for Dutton failure” (3/2). But did they consider who chose Dutton in the first place?
Jenny Bone, Surrey Hills
Just as the fear of the death penalty in some countries does not deter people from committing murder, Jacinta Allan’s penalties under ″adult crime, adult time″ laws will not deter 14-year-olds from committing crimes.
Reg Murray, Glen Iris
When scientific advice regarding subjects such as the global climate crisis and world virus pandemics are concerned, it’s always useful to have the climate and viral biology scientists Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson as members of parliament.
Mark Bennett, Manifold Heights
Warning to all Melburnians to never put away your doonas, whatever the season. Summer in Melbourne? Four seasons in one.
Susan Munday, Bentleigh East
Finally
Thank you Cathy Wilcox for your cartoon on the ceasefire in Gaza (2/12). Your insight and clarity is as always spot on.
Jody Ellis, Thornbury