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Me on: Are the Liberals in danger of becoming the Kodak of Australian politics?, on Inside Story inside.org.au/are-the-libera…

One must wonder, given how many Australians were born overseas, or have parents, relatives or friends born overseas, heard this as a dog whistle (trumpet) that their citizenship status in Australia remains begrudged and conditional.

I think Melbourne and Victoria need a conversation about the disproportionate power and financing of the City of Melbourne relative to other councils, a factor in the increasingly exclusionary centralisation of metropolitan and state cultural facilities. theage.com.au/national/victo…

Impressive travel demand management effort by Transport for NSW workers. via AFR.

I’m glad to share that in my review of Abundance I do engage with the specific policies:

Good to see Ben Phillips subjecting the popular media account of the rental crisis to systematic empirical assessment. It would be worthwhile for scholars to also subject similar media discourse about a home ownership crisis to empirical appraisal.

Looks like there's a great Prof/AProf housing economics role open with the UNSW City Futures Research Centre Centre. external-careers.jobs.unsw.edu.au/cw/en/job/5323…

It's good that young people will have free public transport in Victoria, as they are on lower incomes and often can't drive. But without improvement to services in under-served areas, especially outer suburbs, most benefit will go to wealthier areas. theguardian.com/australia-news…

a genuinely fascinating post over on Greater Auckland about the potential legal liability of Auckland Transport's Directors should they choose to increase speed limits.

It's 50 years since the Auckland Rapid Transit Project was cancelled. Here's a contemporary film about the project. Notably the project team of design professionals was all drawn from state entities - ARA, MOWD and NZR. h/t Chris Harris. ngataonga.org.nz/search-use-col…

It's noteworthy that developers and construction companies frequently identify labour, credit, materials and firm capability as the main issues limiting supply, but when economists are surveyed they tend to think the problem is planning regulation. theage.com.au/property/news/…

Believe it or not, there was a time when the US government built beautiful homes for working-class Americans to deal with a housing crisis theconversation.com/believe-it-or-…

Meanwhile the Australian Labor government's policies to restrict international student enrolments at local universities, principally targeting elite institutions, preceded the US Trump administration's by about nine months.

Interesting discussion of social mix in urban redevelopment precincts in London. Similar problems of market led urban consolidation excluding families through mainly delivering 1 and 2br investor stock are happening in Australian cities.

The collywobbles the Albanese government is having over it's $3m #superannuationtax offer a stark contrast to Bob Hawke's approach of fronting up to his capital gains tax critics in person and giving them a vigorous and direct exposition of his position.

Good discussion by Simon Kuestenmacher on national population planning. IMHO the 2024 National Urban Policy should be doing this work, but to the extent there is any accompanying implementation plan it is invisible and possibly defunct. thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2025/0…

The ABS has released a new tranche of rental data at SA3 level. The direct effect of pandemic migration restrictions on international students and inner Melbournerents is particularly stark, plus what looks like a delayed WFH effect on exurban rents. abs.gov.au/articles/lates…

This is a quite a stark conclusion from RBA research on the relationship between low interest rates, higher house prices and declining home ownership. Tl;dr: low rates result in house price inflation that increases the deposit gap for first home buyers. rba.gov.au/publications/w…

This discussion of Liberal policy direction in housing shows their deep problems. Unless the Liberals can find a policy that generates apartment homeownership (vs renting) at scale they are unlikely to gain much electoral benefit from infill policies. abc.net.au/news/2025-05-3…