NSW: Sydney set to be most unliveable city in Aust: Garrett

AAP General News (Australia)
04-20-1999
NSW: Sydney set to be most unliveable city in Aust: Garrett

By Lorna Knowles

SYDNEY, April 20 AAP - Sydney would be the most unliveable, impractical and expensive city
to live in by next century if its population growth was not curbed, rock singer and green
activist Peter Garrett said tonight.

Speaking at the National Trust Heritage Festival launch, Mr Garrett called for bi-partisan,
hysteria-free discussion on stabilising Sydney's burgeoning population.

He said there were over 4 million people in the Sydney basin and 4.7 million in the greater
metropolitan area. It was anticipated a further 500,000 people would be living here in the
next 25 years.

"It's possible on current projections of population and economic growth, Sydney will be
Australia's most unliveable, impractical as well as most expensive city in which to live in
the 21st century," the 45-year-old Midnight Oil lead singer said at the launch at the State
Theatre.

"We clearly need bi-partisan, hysteria-free discussion about stabilising population in the
Sydney basin ... which notes we are rapidly reaching a genuine limit to the number of people
who can swim on the beaches, learn in the schools and drive on the roads".

In a lecture titled National Estate or Real Estate? Crunch Time in the Harbour City, Mr
Garrett said increasing numbers of property buyers and renters in the Sydney basin came at the
expense of the environment and public health.

"The end of this century presents a historic opportunity for federal, state and local
authorities to agree on a sustainable vision for the Sydney basin which would see our natural
and built heritage preserved intact".

Mr Garrett said if governments valued Sydney's heritage and environment they would not
build a second airport at Badgerys Creek, would not build a replacement nuclear reactor in
Sutherland and would preserve the Sydney Harbour foreshore for public access at all costs.

He said Sydney had taken on two world firsts recently: one, in producing the highest levels
of greenhouse emissions per capita and two, in achieving the highest price per square metre
for water view real estate.

Mr Garrett suggested two "cheeky and creative" funding measures to help Sydney improve its
environment and historic precincts and buildings.

The first was a $5 per day surcharge on all private vehicles carrying only one person
during peak hour. This could be used to subsidise public transport.

The second was a water view surcharge on homes of 0.1 per cent per million dollars for the
maintenance and expansion of national estate-listed buildings.

The National Trust Heritage Festival runs until April 25 and involves more than 270
statewide events, including tours, exhibitions, open houses, alfresco theatre, concerts, walks
and literature.

AAP lk/bm

KEYWORD: GARRETT

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.