Australian cities, luxury and sustainability

The ABS report did not mention swimming pools, which have grown in number in recent years. Once the sign of genuine wealth, they are now common in even lower socio-economic suburbs. They may be good for health, in terms of exercise and clearing up lesser infections by exposure to chlorine, but they are of course very bad for both water use and energy use.

It is much harder to justify the expansion in numbers and types of appliances. For instance, 40 per cent of Perth homes have two refrigerators. 60 per cent have two or more TVs, and just under this amount have energy guzzling plasma or LCDs.

The prevalence of information and communications technologies is more difficult to analyse. Half of Perth homes contain a laptop or notebook computer, and 60 per cent have a desktop. Computers are increasingly important for everyday life, but it would still be the case for that they are used much of the time for entertainment, as evidenced the growth of online video, games and music.

Interestingly, these gizmos do not seem to make people happy as Perth rated very poorly in terms of subjective well-being in the ACF Index.

So Perth is an unsustainable basket case. It will face huge problems as energy prices rise due to peak energy and as a result of climate change containment schemes. Indeed, there was a recent media flap in Perth over pensioners suffering in a cold snap due to unaffordable energy costs.

Furthermore, if the mining boom ends, which it could sooner than many anticipate (especially if Chinese demand collapses), its economic advantages will rapidly evaporate.

None of Australia’s cities are outstanding cases of sustainable conurbations: even Darwin was eight times worse than the ideal. As the index shows, most rely on economic or liveability factors based on high wealth levels, and those underlying economic factors are increasingly determined by overseas conditions. If the global financial crisis returns (which looks increasingly likely), the US or Europe stop demanding cheap Asian goods, or one of China’s many social, environmental, industrial, financial or political problems blows up, then those benevolent economic circumstances will disappear.

This would be a good time for sustainability to enter the nation’s political debates. As we can see, our cities need basic renovation to become sustainable, and many regions and rural areas will need work as well. As the Henry Report pointed out, this is a critical matter in regards to taxation policy in particular and more generally in regards to whether or not the next federal government takes on nation-building as a core project.

More fundamentally, perhaps, more and more Australian households will be forced to choose between wants and needs as the cost of both luxury goods and necessities like power, fuel and water go ever higher. Australians rode largely unscathed through the global financial crisis and the mining boom, after a brief halt, continued to roar along, but for various reasons these days are coming to an end. In coming years we will need to adapt to the new forces at work as quickly as possible if our cities are not to become disaster areas.