Will Australia cope with the rise of mega cities? Australia 2050 (part 2) | 7.30

There is no jobs boom in Australia, we have declining industry and jobs are being outsourced offshore. The official unemployed rate is 5.6% but this figure is fudged and the real figure is significantly higher and the youth unemployment is quoted as 25%. We also pay around $15 billion per annum in welfare payments to non Australian citizens with the current migrant work participation rate of only 66%. Your maths will not add up that migrants working will be our saving grace and keep welfare afloat. There is a finite number of jobs so there is a finite number of taxpayers and this can not keep pace with current levels of migration.

They don't care about who you are, just numbers moving around. Main thing is aslong as you can't afford to live next door to them. Large Increase in the cheap office labour coming from India taking jobs for 50-60k replacing the workforce of 80-90k making them redundant. No payrises more redundancy, no budget sorry. The greed is just unlimited. Your to expensive for Australia. Cost of living going up pays are going down, move your extended family into one house and live like the immigrants just to make it here. Eat rice and noodles.

Dick Smith is right. We do not need more people if we want to have good living standards. Modern technology allows people to do more. Politicians and Big business want more people for more profits and self interest.

Building and designing cities designed around PEOPLE instead of the AUTOMOBILE should be one of our main priorities moving forward.

To those thinking ‘white Straya!’ If we imported the same number of Europeans, we’d have the same housing problem.

So you want a mega city with congestion, so you can take a high-speed rail to another mega-city, with congestion.

The real danger is endless urban sprawl

Dick's right! What about, we don't have the; - Water - Infrastructure - Housing, or - Jobs Don't you understand?

I had to laugh at the man who said we could have 200 million. I'm sure it's possible after a trillion or so dollars spent on major infrastructure projects to sustain such a ridiculous population.However, you have to ask yourself why? Why would you want to have a population so large? Why would you want to damage the environment even further? Why would you want to live like a rat in an overcrowded city? why why why? Those who promote growth have a financial interest.

Roads cannot cope now. Here in Newcastle, they keep building more houses/units but the power grid, sewer, water supply, roads & shop carparks are staying the same. How can you introduce 20K more people to a area that can hardly cope with the current population?

I totally understand where Dick Smith is coming from! I grew up in a house with a backyard. You go to Melbourne for a holiday and opposite your hotel are appartments where there are families with children that have no backyard to play in. Really sad!

No-one voted for ‘Big Australia’.

London had an underground rail system started in the 1860s, stop talking about doubling our population until you start getting our roads and railways in better condition. We need to get around.

The problem with most apartments is they are too small! Most blocks of units are too densely packed with 1 and 2 bed units. If they are really serious about high density then where are 3 or 4 bed apartments with multiple living rooms? They dont exist because they make more off smaller apartments and there is no council or government forcing a change. How can you raise 2 or 3 kids in a 2 bed apartment? Why should we have to do that in australia for crying out loud.

Just because Australia is big doesnt mean it can support endless population growth. There isnt enough fresh water and farming land to support that

From my helicopter I criticise the impact of other people’s lives below me

To sustainably double Australia's population growth without compromising living standards by 2050, you can start by sacking all the Accountants and Lawyers in top bureaucratic positions and replace them with skilled engineers who should hold the top public office or government jobs in the Country.

Sydney an Melbourne are already over populated same as UK can't move

I think developer building bridges and infrastructure is one of the key elements they should provide. Most developers build only buildings, sell or rent all the units and get all the profit and then ask the government to build roads, bridges and everything else that doesn't produce any profit. All development projects should provide connections to closest station, highway, etc.

By 2050 Australia will be uninhabitable, like many other places in our world