Paul Summers Planning Strategies: Paul’s Planning Proclamations

26/06/2006

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Population – A Growing Issue, but not a Laughing Matter

A little more than a decade ago when we first began seriously measuring the population capacity in Noosa there was serious laughter. Regional planners, State politicians, State bureaucrats and other local governments had a great giggle at Noosa’s expense.

We checked our water licences to determine whether we could draw sufficient water to supply our anticipated population and do so at a reasonable cost to our community. Of course we found that if we reduced our population capacity for those on a reticulated supply to a permanent resident figure of around 40,000, then we did have sufficient water based on the agreements then held with the State. What we could not predict was the future price of water. So Noosa Council chose to live within its means and limit the levels of population or more precisely the extent of permissible development and thereby population in the Shire. Once again the peals of laughter rang out!

All this took place in the period 1994-97, but Noosa persisted and despite the mirth put in place planning provisions that saw a limit on development designed to meet the community desires relating to character, the environmental capacity of the area and our ability to supply critical infrastructure such as water.

A decade on when Mayor Bob Abbot calls for south-east Queensland to seriously consider whether there should be limits placed on growth to ensure that we have adequate water and other infrastructure, once more the laughter rings out. Peter Beattie says I wish the growth wasn't as high as it is, in terms of numbers … but it's simply not possible to [cap numbers] and that's one of the reasons why we have to build these dams …

Well the local governments that were full of mirth looking at Noosa, were not so a few short years later. By the early 2000s all south-east Queensland local governments were carefully measuring their population levels and matching their financial capacity to supply infrastructure. It is now time that the State Government took this issue seriously too.

The issue is however not one about population capping. That is an emotive and unrealistic notion that belies the science that sits behind matching need for infrastructure to supply of materials or matching the character sought by communities to the impacts arising from growth.

No, it is about how we distribute our population not only in Queensland, but across Australia. Desley Boyle Minister for Local Government & Planning hit the nail on the head when she said Welcome to Queensland….and keep on driving, referencing the problems in focussing all growth in the south-east corner. Minister Boyle recognises that there are limits to growth. They occur in the worlds of nature, science and even business, but not in Queensland! Here we have a seemingly never-ending capacity to cater for growth. Why? Because we don’t measure things and if we do, we don’t publish the results – if we did we might get a fright and discover that our current way of doing business is not sustainable. Noosa did.

Until we have a mature debate about our spatial distribution of population across this country, billions of $$$ will be expended on roads, tunnels, dams and the like, consuming our fossil fuels at ever-increasing rates whilst pumping out greenhouse gas emissions at ever-increasing volumes. It is fundamental to business to match demand with supply of resources, whether they be raw materials or environmental values. Measuring our impact on those values or whether we have sufficient resources is the keystone to good planning.

It is not a laughing matter!

This article appeared in the Sunshine Coast Eco Echo – August-Sept 2006

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Paul Summers Planning Strategies: Paul’s Planning Proclamations

Population – A Growing Issue, but not a Laughing Matter

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