From The Guardian’s Bridget Delaney:
Imagine a place where there are no elite or expensive private schools. And imagine a society where housing is affordable – a three-bedroom house, for example, costing one quarter of a similar property in Sydney.
What would such a place be like when the two main drivers of financial stress and resultant inequality were removed?
It would be … the most liveable city in Australia. It would be Warrnambool.
Last week the Victorian coastal city of Warrnambool was crowned by the Ipsos annual Life in Australia study as the most liveable city in Australia.
Access to nature, feeling safe, a sense of community and a lack of traffic congestion “helped the area score so highly”, according to reports.
But I also think inequality – or the perception of it – is important when it comes to liveability.
Take away elite private schools and ridiculously expensive median house prices,and suddenly you’re living in a much more equal place.
I grew up in Warrnambool, went to the local Catholic school and many of my friends still live there. I love the place, but it’s not without its problems. This week, for example, the front page of the Warrnambool Standard reported on a shortage of rental accommodation. And when I was growing up, the city lacked racial diversity.
Look, I like diversity. But there is nothing wrong with not having it. If that were true then the vast majority of nations on earth, all but a few in truth, would be intrinsically bad. That’s ridiculous.
Obviously as well, you can’t have massive people imports without pressuring house prices, public school funding and the environment. Well, you could, but certainly not in our system of government which is directed at ensuring people imports generate higher house prices, under-investment in public schooling and destruction of the environment.
So, if you value living standards then you face a stark choice: stop importing people or expect the fallout to get worse. Warnambool’s rental problems are a classic case in point as its people imports accelerate:
And so does its rental crisis. There’s won’t be a solution. Nobody who matters wants one.
The Guardian’s cognitive dissonance isn’t reasoned. It’s a cult of holier-than-thou self destruction.
