Your children are moving to the land of Far, Far Away

Some, such as Senator David Pocock, have rightly criticized the Coalition’s policy from an environmental perspective of freezing green building standards.

But my real concern is generational and geographical, and arises from personal experience. My friends and I, mostly younger Millennials or older Gen Zers, chose to spend our 20s mostly renting in the suburbs close to where we grew up (Melbourne’s northeast) or moving closer to our centrally located workplaces. But as they approach the age of 30, some, fed up with the constant moving and second-class citizenship of renting, are looking to buy property and move to larger accommodations before potentially starting families.

They are almost always disappointed. Due to the lack of affordable, family-friendly housing options in the inner suburbs not currently occupied by older people, many young people are being forced to move further away from where they grew up to the outskirts of the city. The coalition’s urban vision reinforces and accelerates such stratification by prioritizing greater urban sprawl over infill projects.

Continuing to expand the peripheries of our cities is extremely expensive and unsustainable. Flora and fauna need to be cleaned. New schools, hospitals and public transport lines should be built at a much higher cost than renovating existing ones, according to Labour’s housing minister Clare O’Neil. pointingThe coalition’s funding will not support such vital social infrastructure. As public transport projects often lag behind new developments, new residents become particularly car-dependent, increasing congestion, commute times and emissions.

But perhaps the most unnoticed trap is social. Moving away from their families and social networks, these young families either become more socially isolated or spend too much time traveling back to where they grew up, again adding to traffic congestion. Their access to family support on issues such as child care becomes limited.

Boomers, ask yourself: is this the future you really want? A future where you barely see your children and grandchildren or have to drive hours to and from their distant homes?

Maybe some people in Brighton might be rich enough to help their children buy a more conveniently located house. But even for fairly comfortable middle-class parents who can help in smaller ways, the realities of our unaffordable sprawl are now coming to light.

‘A city without children’

When I was young my friends and I loved Arcade Fire’s album suburbs – a record that simultaneously evokes both nostalgia and alienation from suburbs like ours. particularly memorable to watch It became the “Childless City”. Today it is becoming increasingly easier to imagine this proposal. As we grew and moved, fewer young people came to replace us.

The latest data confirms that we are living in cities with fewer and fewer children as young families are priced out of the environment. Some particularly wealthy and walled inner suburbs”gravestone suburbs”, because every year more residents die than are born or moved.

median age For example, those in Brighton are now 48 to 17 years older than those in Craigieburn, north of Melbourne. In Sydney’s harborside Double Bay-Darling Point, over-65s make up about 25% of the population, while in Oran Park in the city’s outer south-west, the figure is just 5%.

Allowing more development in interior, transport-adjacent areas is designed to partially reverse this trend, as well as reduce car dependency. Analysis For example, research by activist group YIMBY Melbourne shows that 23 of the 25 activity centers announced by the Allan government are in areas where child populations decreased between the 2016 and 2021 censuses.

Can Allan bring young people back to our suburbs?

I want to live near my family. Is this too much to ask?

I currently live approximately 10,000 miles away from my friends, family, and our family dog, Rusty. Of course, I chose to leave my loved ones in Melbourne and move to London, and I do not regret this choice.

Still, I miss them terribly, and I intend to make up for lost time when I eventually return home. I especially hope to live close enough to stop by often and take Rusty around those familiar blocks once again.

Labor is by no means perfect on housing and lacks ambition, especially at the federal level. But Allan’s plan, like Chris Minns’ similar efforts in NSW, offers the boldest and most realistic way to reduce youth displacement in Melbourne.

Its effects will be felt not just in rents and GDP figures, but in less measurable moments for those we care about. We often discuss housing policy in dry numerical terms, but we should not underestimate its profound impact on our social and family lives.

Some young people who want a big backyard will undoubtedly still move to the outskirts of the city, but I’m hopeful that my generation will soon have more options like townhomes and apartments to stay closer to home. It will just require enough urban Boomers to recognize their own interest in supporting gentle densification of their space.

I hope there will be more options like this before I move back to Melbourne. Otherwise, and especially if current Coalition MPs come to power, my generation will be on a long road to God knows where.