Despite boasts of ‘record’ infrastructure spending, relative to GDP it’s comparable to previous budgets. What’s different is that Treasurer Frydenberg has chanced his arm more over the longer term.
Population growth has pros and cons, and the Morrison government’s plan is less about a change in immigration numbers than about increasing the benefits and minimising the costs.
Encouraging migrants to move to regional areas could be a win-win’ scenario, as long as policymakers pay attention to five key factors.
Muslims need places where they feel safe from Islamophobia. And being made to feel unwelcome has lasting impacts – Muslims still avoid Cronulla beach, the scene of anti-Muslim riots in 2005.
Karine Dupré, Griffith University; Jane Coulon, École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture Montpellier (ENSAM), and Silvia Tavares, James Cook University
When we plan a better future for an increasingly urbanised world, we need to be aware that more than half of all children now live in the tropics. That calls for solutions with a tropical character.
City fringe foodbowls supply much of our fresh produce and can increase climate resilience by making better use of wastewater and organic waste. A new roadmap outlines how to protect these foodbowls.
Christchurch is now inextricably associated with the mass shootings at two mosques in which 50 people died. So what can a city do when its name become synonymous with such an event?
Parkland, Florida, where 17 people died in a school shooting on Valentine’s Day 2018, was already a place of highly secure, gated communities, so the survivors instead united against guns and hate.
Kebab vans symbolise the success of ‘bottom-up’ multiculturalism, providing a way for the non-European cultural ‘other’ to become part of our way of life.
Autonomous mass transit vehicles like ‘trackless trams’ are a better bet than autonomous cars to give us people-friendly cities that capture the value created by infrastructure for the common good.
In 2008, Australia had a national homelessness strategy, plus a ten-point roadmap to reduce youth homelessness. Why has it fallen so far short of its goals, and what still needs to be done?
The problems with housing systems in Australia and similar countries run deep. Solutions depend on a fundamental rethink of our approach to housing and its central place in our lives and the economy.
The major parties are promising projects costing tens of billions of dollars, with a surprisingly large overlap between them. Yet only two have been endorsed by infrastructure authorities.
Every major transport study since the 1970s has identified Sydney’s western rail corridor as the priority for an upgrade. The latest patronage figures confirm that’s where the need is greatest.
The illegal demolition of a historic pub in Melbourne is the subject of a legal bid to order its rebuilding. Although the heritage value of such a move is debatable, there are other justifications.
What matters to women as they grow older, as the city’s population changes and urban development continues apace? You don’t know unless you ask them – and they have so much to contribute.
As they return to classes, a survey finds nearly half of female tertiary students in Melbourne don’t feel safe using public transport at night. And 79% have been sexually harassed or victimised.
Architects, certifiers and engineers who work as consultants to builders are on notice about potential liability for the use of flammable cladding, but governments are also culpable for their actions.
Amid fears that parts of Townsville and other Australian cities might become “uninsurable”, making urban areas more resilient and adaptable to flooding is becoming more urgent.
Two trends in Australia, an ageing population and warming climate, are increasing the threat that heatwaves pose to our health. Increasing vegetation cover is one way every city can reduce the risk.