Letters not published - February 2007

From: Jenny Yule
To: SMH Letters
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 8:49 PM
Subject: Battle for NSW article: Let Sydney Grow ...


Dear sir/madam,
So developers say "Let Sydney grow or lose $6b"? (SMH, 26 Feb). How about "let Sydney grow and lose what is left of our clean air, green space, and quality of life? Let Sydney grow and watch our traffic system deteriorate even further and social problems associated with overcrowding escalate. Let Sydney grow and witness a rise in stress and pollution related diseases. Let Sydney grow and marvel at the way the developers' pockets bulge and the political parties' funds overflow. It is clear the Department of Planning refuses to develop our beautiful city appropriately and is hell-bent on high rise and maximum density. I say let Sydney be.
(Mrs) J. Yule

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From: Tony Recsei
To: SMH Letters
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007
Subject: Strata Living: A paradise lost


Our lost paradise is not restricted to strata living ("Strata living: a paradise lost", Herald 26 January). The entire community is facing the destruction of our Australian way of life. That wonderful and rare attribute in an increasingly overcrowded world – adequate space, is being wrung out of our neighbourhoods.

Only 0.25% of Australia’s land surface is urbanised. However the Planning Department dictatorially rams more and more high-density multiunits into protesting communities under the threat of taking away their councils’ planning powers.

The only people who benefit are the developers who build this cancerous high-rise and the politicians who receive their donations.

Tony Recsei

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21 February 2007

To the Editor: Sydney Morning Herald

Re: Co-operation essential to great Aussie dream (21 February)

ALP Housing Shadow Minister Tanya Plibersek notes that the scarcity of land in Sydney does not explain why costs are high in other parts of Australia . True enough. However, house costs are high elsewhere in Australia because similar land shortages exist elsewhere in Australia. This is documented in reports by the Urban Development Institute of Australia and the Residential Development Council. Costs are high in Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne because of planning induced land shortages in Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne. Land for development has escalated in cost more than any of the 90 elements of the Consumer Price Index and more than double that of petrol. Prices do not rise with such a vengeance where supply is permitted to respond to demand.



In turning their backs on the Great Australian Dream, state governments have driven the cost (including interest) of the median price house up by from six to 11 years of gross annual household income (median), and that in just 10 years. The mechanisms vary. In Sydney, there are direct and ideological urban consolidation plans, while in Perth, a less direct, yet just as destructive bureaucratic morass is the cause of the land shortage. There is simply no hope of restoring the Great Australian Dream without dealing squarely with the problem of government strangled land supply.

Wendell Cox

Co-author, Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey

Visiting Professor, Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, Paris

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To: letters smh
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 9:09 AM
Subject: "developer" violence charge


Dear Editor

A domestic violence charge that would "name and shame" all offenders? (Iemma recycles $2b pledges, February 19)

How about introducing a developer violence charge at the same time, Mr Iemma?

Regards

Anne Wagstaff