7. Population & Cities

Can cities experience growing pains? Not the type of growing pains we usually associate with awkward teenagers but the growing pains of population growth.  Australia has one of the fastest growing populations in the world with most of us living in major urban centres. This puts pressure on urban planners, who have to deal with the city’s growth. To add to the pain, state governments do not always have the resources to cope with the development that is needed to keep up with the growth. Associate Professor Glen Searle is an adjunct at the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney’s Urban Housing Lab. He talks with us about how other big cities have dealt with increasing populations, and what it might take for Australians to have the difficult discussion we need to have about population and economic growth.