Perth supports better planning for good growth

A clear majority of people who live in Perth believe that a failure to plan properly is causing problems faced by our growing cities and that population growth can be good as long as it is properly planned.

75% of people who live in Perth believe population growth can be good as long as it’s managed properly. 77% of Perth residents also believe that the problems faced by growing cities often come down to governments failing to plan properly.

These are among the key findings from a national survey commissioned by the Property Council of Australia on attitudes towards population growth in our major cities. They are being released ahead of next week’s COAG meeting in Adelaide where the Commonwealth, state and territory governments will discuss a new framework for better managing the impact of population growth.

The online survey of 2,936 respondents was conducted between 13-23 November and included respondents in all state and territory capitals except for Darwin.

WA Executive Director Sandra Brewer, said the survey results showed that while there were some growing pains in our major cities, especially Melbourne and Sydney, respondents strongly favoured better planning to manage our growth in the future.

 “Australians like their cities, with most saying they are good or great places to live.

“We haven’t done a very good job in the past of planning for growth and our cities are feeling the pressure now which is giving rise to concern about the rate of growth.

“This survey shows Australians are not against growth, but they want it better planned and managed.

89% of people who lived in Perth rated their city as a good place to live (ranging from ‘fairly good to excellent’). 31% of survey respondents rated Perth as an excellent place to live.

“Australians generally like the cities where they live, but clearly reckon we could be doing a lot better on planning and infrastructure to manage their growth.

“Australians have thrown down the gauntlet for all levels of government – get on with the job of planning and investing for a growing Australia,” Ms Brewer said.

Feeling the growing pains

Concerns about growth are greatest in our east coast capitals.

72% of respondents from Melbourne and 70% in Sydney thought their city was growing too fast. 60% of Brisbane respondents thought their city’s population was growing too fast.

By contrast, only 36% of respondents from Adelaide thought their city was growing too fast, compared to 44% in Canberra, 46% in Hobart and 46% in Perth.

Only 27% of those surveyed thought their city had handled population changes in recent years well.

77% of Perth respondents agreed with the proposition that problems faced by growing cities often come down to governments that have failed to plan properly.

66% of Perth respondents agreed that politicians are guilty of blaming migration for their own lack of planning that has caused congestion in our cities.

Nationally, almost all respondents (96%) thought the federal, state and territory governments had a very important or fairly important role in making their city a better place to live, followed by the role of local government (94%), development and construction companies (92%), local businesses (92%) and community groups (88%)

————————————–

Population growth is good as long as it’s properly planned

	Adelaide	Brisbane	Canberra	Hobart	Melbourne	Perth	Sydney
Total agree	75	76	82	74	72	75	72
Total Disagree	8	6	8	7	9	5	8
Neither	16	16	9	19	17	18	18

 

Problems faced by growing cities often come down to governments failing to plan properly

	Adelaide	Brisbane	Canberra	Hobart	Melbourne	Perth	Sydney
Total agree	74	79	86	82	77	77	76
Total Disagree	5	3	6	1	5	3	5
Neither	18	16	8	15	17	17	18

 

From your own perspective, how would you rate your city as a place to live?

	Adelaide	Brisbane	Canberra	Hobart	Melbourne	Perth	Sydney	Net
Excellent	34	26	38	47	30	31	25	31
Fairly/very good	54	64	53	46	57	58	57	57
Average	8	9	6	7	8	9	11	9
Not very good	2	1	3	1	2	2	5	3
Fairly/ very bad	1	0	0	0	2	0	2	1

 

Politicians are guilty of blaming migration for their own lack of planning that has caused congestion in our cities

	Adelaide	Brisbane	Canberra	Hobart	Melbourne	Perth	Sydney
Total agree	65	65	75	71	61	66	63
Total Disagree	10	9	7	8	12	8	11
Neither	22	22	16	17	23	22	24