It's time to fight the forces of negativity in the trenches

I HAVE been asked to speak on the reticence to tackle the negativism around the issue of growth and development.

I WILL be speaking at the Property Council of Australia's annual congress in Darwin on Monday, July 25. I was asked to speak on a subject that is a hobbyhorse of mine -- the reticence of the property industry, and of the wider business community, to tackle the negativism around the issue of growth and development.

All too often it seems that any form of urban growth is to be objected to or blocked, as is any form of property development. The reason being that to allow either is now popularly viewed as being tantamount to defiling the planet.

Or at least that's the fashionable logic.

And not only that, but the role and motive of property developers, let alone of a "shyster adviser" to the property industry, can only be to line their own pockets.

It is apparently not possible for anyone in the business to make a contribution that is balanced between meeting a market need for housing and infrastructure, protecting the local environmental integrity, and generating a legitimate return on funds.

It is therefore up to the citizenry, organised by often politically motivated propagandists, to block, stymie, and/or divert any form of property development. Don't you people get it? No development. At all. Anywhere. That's the only way we can avert environmental calamity and put the self-interested developers back in their box.

The problem with this narrative, which plays so well to a sub-strata of modern thinking, is it is often left unchecked in the hate blogosphere and the letters section of the mainstream media.

Few from the business community seem prepared to fight negativism with fact, reason and logic. Or to use their authority and position to speak out in support of the real need for some property developments.

Sometimes -- in fact, more often than not -- the processes of the modern planning system are sufficient to deliver good property outcomes.

The reason why business leaders are so coy about speaking out is, I suspect, because chief executives (with a few brave exceptions) of private development groups and publicly listed companies do not want to jeopardise projects in the pipeline, or the reputation and public relations image of their businesses.

The logic is 'don't get involved, it'll all blow over'. No, it won't blow over. The property industry is in a battle for mind-space about how mums and dads think. Every time business fails to speak out, the anti-growth forces expand further into the unchallenged vacuum of public opinion.

The reason why this is critical is because policy decisions at the federal level are now decided largely by the findings of opinion polls and focus groups.

There is no point in the property industry having meaningful private chinwags with ministers about what is needed to deliver property services and prosperity to the nation. Ministers' thinking and public policy are now swayed by test polling.

The mining industry proved the truth of the new paradigm last year. The tobacco industry is now doing the same. Why not the property industry?

In fact, I would go further: there needs to be hand-to-hand combat with the anti-growth forces in the media, in the blogosphere and anywhere where only one side of the development argument prevails.

It is only when both sides are fairly argued that mums and dads can make a balanced judgment about what is right for their local area, their state and the nation.

And while I'm at it, why is it that no one from the business community speaks out during the annual flailing of the first bank of the season to announce their "massive profits"? Bank profits should not be measured in dollar values, but as a percentage return on funds invested.

The reason no one speaks out is because no one wants the flak. "Not my problem." Yes, it is your problem. Every time misinformation, unfairness and economic illiteracy prevail unchecked, it emboldens the forces of negativism to go further and it unreasonably sways public opinion. The new battleground for the property industry is not the Land and Environment Court or Canberra's Capital Hill. It is in a thousand unreasonable or plain wrong statements made about planned growth and/or managed development.

The property industry makes an extraordinary contribution to the Australian people and economy. It delivers houses, infrastructure, taxes and jobs to almost every community in the nation. And it does so to increasingly stringent environmental standards.

In my rant session in Darwin later this month, I want to relay real-life stories about unfair and unreasonable tactics used by the anti-growth forces to block and stymie development projects. I have one or two good examples of my own. But I want more. Email me your contributions and/or thoughts on this subject. I will ensure complete anonymity.

It's time for the property industry and the wider business community to fight back. No one wants growth and development that is unsustainable, but equally there needs to be a fair balance struck between delivering property and infrastructure services, getting things done and complete development paralysis.

KPMG partner Bernard Salt is the author of The Big Tilt; twitter.com/bernardsalt; Facebook/BernardSalt

Demographer; [e-mail]