Australia’s outer suburbs, including Kwinana, are growing more than twice as fast as the rest of the nation and doing the heavy lifting for the national housing supply.
Mayor Carol Adams said the City of Kwinana population had increase from 38,918 in 2016 to 45,867 in 2021, a growth rate of 15 per cent which was much higher than the state average of 6.9 per cent.
“We came to Canberra to make sure the new government understands the situation faced by local governments in high growth areas with millions of people building in Australia’s outer suburbs and needing complimentary infrastructure including freeway and highway upgrades, bus routes, railway lines, walking and cycle paths to improve liveability and ensure highly functional neighbourhoods and communities,” she said.
Being one of the fastest growing Local Government in Western Australia, Kwinana is expected to accommodate a high proportion of the million houses estimated to be built in Australia over the next five years from 2024.
“Australia has an opportunity to learn from past mistakes, to build world-leading, well planned suburbs and provide the foundation for communities like Kwinana to reach their full potential,” Mayor Adams said.
“Australia’s population growth stopped during the pandemic – but not in growth areas. In the past decade, the population of growth areas increased by 34 per cent while Australia’s total population grew by just 14.9 per cent. Yet there is no specific funding to get basic infrastructure into these new communities,” said Councillor Matthew Deeth, Chair of the National Growth Areas Alliance.
Councillor Deeth said, “The municipalities that our Alliance represents are home to 5.3 million people. One fifth of Australia’s population lives in just 29 municipalities. We’re building most of Australia’s new houses in the places with the least supporting infrastructure.”
“Growth is a national issue that the Albanese Government must urgently address, and the missing step is national coordination – with all levels of government working together to address the uneven distribution of people, jobs, houses and infrastructure,” said Councillor Deeth.
The City of Kwinana together with the NGAA is calling for a comprehensive national approach at all levels of government to address the unequal distribution of people, jobs, houses and infrastructure.