Comments on: People do not want a big Canberra

By: Nicholas Car

Nicholas Car — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 01:30:54 +0000

It’s almost funny but when I read an article like this I think advocates for population growth are so obviously crazy and obviously self-serving that I wonder how many people can or could ever agree with them. Let’s hope that through articles like this more people come to this side or the arguments so that the orthodoxy becomes one of no growth and pro-growth people are in the minority. Certainly the level of public discourse about population is growing and lets face it: the only thing worse than being talked about, albieit often slanging from from ‘the other side’, is not talked about as that just keeps the whole current orthodoxy the orthodoxy!

By: Ian Clark

Ian Clark — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:15:16 +0000

This is a clearly written very accurate account that no rational individual could disagree with. Congratulations.

By: Ruth

Ruth — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 11:03:36 +0000

Crispin has his finger on the pulse of community sentiment. The Stanhope government is allowing developers to concrete over our green space, and our roads to become as congested as the capital cities some of us came here to escape. A few property magnates make super profits from high population growth, while taxpayers and existing residents are left to pay the costs.

By: Jenny Goldie

Jenny Goldie — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 05:47:25 +0000

Another amazingly good article from Crispin who has encapsulated the whole debate in one article – congratulations Crispin. The infrastructure argument is particularly vital. Having more people does not mean a solution to poor infrastructure, indeed, two per cent growth rate means infrastructure needs are actually doubled. The other vital point is that only a few benefit from high population growth e.g. large property owners, developers and car-park owners, while the rest suffer “congestion, hospital waiting queues, loss of city green spaces…and so on,” as Crispin said. He made passing mention of water restrictions but could have elaborated about further such restrictions under a possibly drying climate. There’s not much point in raising the height of the Cotter Dam if it doesn’t rain that much. It may well experience the plight of Lake Mead in the US behind the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. Lake Mead is 100 feet below normal levels because of a drying climate and too much extraction from fast-growing cities like Las Vegas nearby. Let it be a warning to us!