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By Chris Spindler
SYDNEY — The continued expansion of Sydney's outer suburbs has led to a discussion about urban sprawl and the resulting inequities and deteriorating quality of life for the lower income residents. Recent studies have shown that 90% of new housing up to 2021 is destined for Sydney's outer fringes — areas already lacking in basic services such as water, sewerage, transport, schools and hospitals.
The "outer ring" of suburbs is expected to grow at twice the rate of the "inner ring". The outer ring is inhabited overwhelmingly by middle or lower income families and people.
The head of the Australian National University's Urban Research Program, Patrick Troy, warns: "The urban consolidation program [a state government program emphasising inner city condensed living] and the Commonwealth housing policies have accentuated the divide between the haves and the have-nots".
One of the clearest examples of governments favouring private investment above the needs of the environment and the needs of people is the construction of new motorways while the public transport system is run down. An indication of this is that car ownership levels have grown by an average 4.8% a year since 1970 — four times the growth in use of rail or bus.
There has been no major expansion of railways since the 1970s, but there has been a road construction policy carried out since the 1940s. Sydney's public transport system remains similar to 50 years ago.
The planning manuals from the 1940s dictate the design of a new suburb to provide 40% of space to the car. This locks new suburbs into car dependence and low public transport viability. Every new suburb is based on the estimate that households will use cars two or three times as much as older suburbs.
This is so much the state government's priority that over the next 10 years there is $1.2 billion committed to tollway developments, while only half that is committed to public transport links. Several other tollways in the next 20 years are to be built by private industry.
The M5 alone will cost an estimated $600 million (possibly closer to $1 billion). Peter Newman, associate professor in city policy at Murdoch University, claims this is likely to rule out any major new public transport infrastructure for at least five years. A billion dollars could provide new light or heavy rail lines to huge areas of Sydney that are now virtually unserviced by public transport.