Is the postwar suburban home in outer suburbia becoming a historical mode of life? Will the effect of increasing house prices, car dependency, higher petrol prices, higher interest rates, and ever more toll roads be increasing urban consolidation? Is the suburbian dream coming to an end? Will people begin to fall out of love with suburban sprawl and backyards?

Not so say the free market conservatives, such as the IPA. Increasing housing prices, they argue, are primarily due to the failure of state ALP governments to release land. This increases housing prices and causes mortgage pain. The reason for this is that state Labor governments are beholden to urban planners and environmental activists who have contributed to the crisis by making urban sprawl a dirty word. These the latte-sipping, inner-city greenies, living in their renovated terraces, are opposed to urban sprawl ,and they hate the ordinary Australians aspiration to realize the suburban dream. Their urban consolidation interfers with the lives of the asspirational-class, prevents ordinary people from exercising choice, and stops homowners living and working where they like.

Bill Owen, From the series Suburbia, 1973

The above conservative talking point was what I heard from Wendell Cox on Stateline in Adelaide on Friday night as he attacked those who argue that road congestion can be reduced through improving urban public transport. The limited land release scenario may make sense in Sydney where there has been deliberate land restrictions but not in Adelaide. The cost of land has trebled in Adelaide but land supply has been pretty good. So costly infrastructure on greenfield sites, slow planning and development approval processes, inefficient tax regimes, and poor governance are also aspects of the affordability equation.

Bill Owen, From the series Suburbia, 1973

Cox came across as an idealogue (a rightwing libertarian) opposed to smart urban growth and the new urbanism He sounded like a hired gun when he argued that modern light rail and commuter rail systems are a profoundly misguided waste of public money.

Adelaide is proposing to extend its tram line through the city and Cox came across as the attack dog for the groups (Liberal Party) opposing this public transportation project. His argument, that urban consolidation is actually bad for the environment, made little sense.