PROPERTY BOOM A NIGHTMARE FOR SOME RESIDENTS
Housing solutions need to be found before our city’s growing pains develop into something more sinister
DEAR God I am tired of the excuses.
More than that, I’m ashamed of our behaviour as residents of this beautiful city who seem to think that it’s for our eyes and enjoyment only.
Every day on community social media pages I read of distraught residents and families searching for somewhere to live in the city they have called home for years. They are living two families in a one-bedroom apartment, they are couchsurfing, they are living in their cars … because we do not have enough houses for all the people who call the Gold Coast home.
It’s not good enough. This property boom has seen affordability disappear like a midnight dream, while tenants are being locked out due to rising rents or landlords taking advantage of this sellers’ market. Meanwhile, the new arrivals keep coming to the city, many armed with wallets fattened by southern capital salaries, leading to an unsettling tension between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
Again, I read it all on the community pages where every desperate soul pleading for a room to rent must prove their GC local credentials lest they be howled down as the source of all property problems.
So I literally breathed a sigh of relief this week when I read in this paper that the state government will form a taskforce to tackle the Gold Coast and southeast Queensland’s population explosion.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles announced the formation of a planning team which will have a mandate to ensure there is enough new development to deal with the growth.
But how are they ever going to change the hearts and minds of residents who are busily slamming the door shut every time council seeks to house its own people?
First council targeted Biggera Waters, Southport West and Labrador as development hotspots, but last month backed down after backlash from residents.
So this week Mayor Tom Tate revealed council was preparing to target Kirra, Coolangatta, Palm Beach and Bilinga for high-density development, saying the southern Gold Coast was best positioned to cater for the population influx because it would surround infrastructure such as the light rail Stage 4 extension to the airport at Coolangatta.
To which Palm Beach councillor Daphne McDonald declared her suburb would be “lost” if it was to be forced into high-density living, with children kicked “on to the streets to play”.
“It’s ludicrous because you need to have a balance between development and community space and parklands,” she said.
“What we are already seeing with high-density development is that there is no open space and kids are forced to play in the streets.”
Which is interesting considering that one of the most high-profile highdensity developments in Palm Beach, Sunland’s Magnoli, actually donated a quarter of its site as a public park for local residents to enjoy.
There’s grass, covered picnic tables and a brand new playground, all sheltered from traffic and open towards the surrounding neighbourhood streets.
When I visited, it was being
heavily patronised by young families from nearby homes … none from Magnoli itself.
That’s not to say that every development or developer is such a good neighbour, but council could certainly make sure that this is the way of the future.
Rather than locking the door against development, let’s find a way to make it something that benefits the whole suburb. And then let’s not keep that suburb all to ourselves.
I’m no fan of overdevelopment, but I’m also not a fan of homelessness. Let’s steer clear of either extreme and find a way to settle in the middle.
The fact is that our growing pains are not going to go away, no matter how much we ignore them … indeed, they will literally wind up on our own doorstep.
I’ve asked before and I’ll ask again … to all those residents who have lived here for years but don’t like the way the city is changing – what will your children or grandchildren do?
If we don’t develop homes for them, where will they live? It won’t be here because they won’t be able to afford it – it’s just the simple economic principles of supply and demand.
So do you have room in your heart and your suburb to make way for them? Or is this city only for the wealthy, the elite and the old?
To me, that is a far more frightening vision of the city’s future than high-density developments. That’s why it’s time to stop making excuses and start making solutions.
Rather than locking the door against development, let’s find a way to make it something that benefits the whole suburb
ON Wednesday afternoon, I like many others watched the Attorney-General Christian Porter answer to the allegations made against him by a now-dead woman claiming an event when both were teens 33 years ago.
What I saw disgusted me, like every person I have spoken to.
A media hyena pack whipped up by the vultures in Australian politics, Penny Wong of the ALP and Sarah Hansen Young of the Queensland Greens.
The worst of the hyenas were the reporters from the ABC who were not conducting an interview but were conducting a trial by media, a witch hunt, an attack to try to create a fake belief in the eyes of the public which they failed at miserably.
While the media believes it is good at creating its own opinions and forcing the public to believe them they have forgotten that even in 2021 we still believe in a fair go, that everyone is innocent until proven guilty and if it does not sound right then it is BS.
This media pack and the representatives of the ALP and Greens have even gone so far as to suggest that the police decisions based on the laws of this nation are wrong and that they are right and we need another group to administer and uphold the rights of the innocent and seek out the guilty as long as it matches what they want.
All day on Thursday I listened to the toxic ABC make claims that the public wants an inquiry and that the public supports their views but when pushed by those who disagree they will not allow the many people to voice their disgust in the ABC and their disbelief in the ABC’s opinions.
If the public supports the media why is it all TV channels’ Facebook pages are filled not with support for the media but of those disgusted in what they have done and support for the Attorney-General Christian Porter and the police decision to be upheld and the matter left to history as a brief note.
Why is it I have heard all day Thursday an ongoing anger at the media, especially the ABC, for their actions to make us believe what they want us to believe.
So many now saying they will cancel subscriptions and will only watch the sports reports on TV.
As to the two politicians, both feminists, I believe that we as a nation would be better off without them, especially the Greens Senator for Queensland.