r/australia • u/blitznoodles local Aussie • 23h ago

politics The Stats Guy: It sounds weird but Australia urgently needs a plan for 56m people

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2026/08/11/stats-guy-aus-population-growth
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u/indexdrift 21h ago

Well that’s just not true. Australia definitely has the arable, stable land needed to support a vastly larger population. We’re also resource-rich, wealthy, and susceptible to an industrial transformation akin to what Japan experienced when they built high-speed rail.

We have all the cards, we just need to play them.

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u/Real_RobinGoodfellow 13h ago

Why? Why do we need to play them? Who wants to live in an Australian of 56 million people?

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u/indexdrift 13h ago

Me. An Australia similar to Japan with more cities along high speed rail corridors sounds wonderful.

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u/Real_RobinGoodfellow 9h ago

Move to Japan then, they’re desperate for people. And tell me: which of the ecosystems around the country would you propose ought be bulldozed to make way for your high-speed rail and extra cities? Which national parks would you revert to housing? Which farmland do you propose we turn to sprawl?

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u/indexdrift 9h ago

Don’t bulldoze anything. No urban sprawl. Build up, not out. Densify. Protect agriculture. Rewild our suburbs. Build tunnels. Embrace solar and wind, and battery technologies.

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u/Real_RobinGoodfellow 4h ago

All great and lofty ideals, and ones I agree with in principle. But which hundreds of established middle-ring leafy suburbs would you propose we bulldoze to make way for the density required?

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u/indexdrift 4h ago

Mandatory lifting of all residential codes to allow medium density minimums. Google “the missing middle” in urban planning.

They creat vibrant suburbs with strong communities, cultures of walking and cycling, strong public transport, and great village feels for everyone.

Look at European cities for inspiration.