Street vendors are the most visible of the people who work in the informal sector – up to half the urban workforce in cities like Manila – but whose needs and rights receive no official recognition.
While farmers are the familiar face of rural Australia, most jobs are not in agriculture or mining.
Dan Peled/AAP
Rural and regional Australia is a big and diverse place, but some broad common issues do emerge as policy priorities.
Current levels of population growth become a problem for Australians when investment in infrastructure like public transport fails to keep up.
David Moir/AAP
Population growth in Australia is a problem mainly because of the lack of a coherent national policy to manage it. The focus needs to be on maintaining quality of life through sustainable growth.
Koalas can adapt to urban areas with enough suitable green spaces but would benefit from wildlife crossing areas to reduce their risk of being hit by cars.
Julian Smith/AAP
Parents and children rarely put agreements about granny flats in writing and almost never consult a lawyer. But when these arrangements go wrong, the consequences can be disastrous and costly for all.
Residents of the outer suburbs like the green spaces and sense of community, but lament the lack of access to transport and other services.
theskaman306/Shutterstock
Much of the growth in our cities is in the outer suburbs, now home to around 5 million people. And that creates problems like traffic that detract from the advantages residents see in living there.
When prices are falling, fewer home owners will choose to sell if they can afford to stay put.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
It’s natural to assume that a downturn in the property market is good news for people who’ve been priced out of the market. In practice, they might still not be able to buy a home.
The enthusiasm for recycling water that Australians had at the height of the drought little more than a decade ago has waned.
Shaney Balcombe/AAP
Cities relied entirely on conserving and recycling water to get through the last big drought. We now have desalination plants, but getting the most out of our water reserves still makes sense.
The largest desalination plant in Australia, Victoria’s A$3.5 billion ‘water factory’ can supply nearly a third of Melbourne’s needs.
Nils Versemann/Shutterstock
Sydney and Melbourne are bringing desalination plants back on stream and Adelaide plans to increase its plant’s output. Perth depends on desalination. But is it the best way to achieve water security?
Combustible cladding on the Neo200 building facade allowed the fire to spread quickly from floor to floor.
MFB/AAP
The risks of combustible cladding on high-rise buildings have long been known. And audits have identified hundreds of Australian buildings with this cladding. Delay in replacing it is inexcusable.
Residents evacuated from the Neo200 building in Melbourne were unaware of the fire risk posed by its cladding.
Ellen Smith/AAP
As more and more Australians live and work in high-rise buildings, their responsibilities and roles in ensuring all occupants’ safety must not be neglected.
A cake made to farewell the last tenant to leave the Sirius building, which was built in Sydney at a time when governments saw the need to invest directly in public housing.
Ben Rushton/AAP
If we recognised social housing as infrastructure as essential as transport links, schools and hospitals, not properly investing in it could become unthinkable.
The fire in the Melbourne CBD on Monday was a reminder of the urgency of developing a system that guarantees only materials that meet building safety standards are used.
Bekah Jane/Twitter
Fortunately, no lives were lost in the latest cladding fire in Melbourne, but it’s a stark reminder of the urgent need to track and verify that building materials comply with safety standards.
The 392 apartments in Opal Tower (centre) were evacuated on Christmas Eve when residents heard loud cracks and defects were found.
Paul Braven/AAP
While Opal Tower residents are more badly affected than most, up to 80% of multi-unit buildings have serious defects. Here’s what government can do right now to fix the industry.
Housing affordability becomes less of a concern in the years after buying a house, especially for people who bought a decade or more ago.
Paul Miller/AAP
Affordability is a problem across Sydney for prospective home buyers. But if they are able to become owners, new research shows affordability becomes much less of a problem over five to ten years.
The independent owner-operated businesses that bring life to run-down neighbourhoods often have a hipster ethos.
Peter Walters
It’s easy to scorn the gentrifying hipster stereotype, but many inner-city neighbourhoods benefit from the distinctive mix of businesses and activities they pursue. So why should the suburbs miss out?
Lochiel Park in Adelaide was Australia’s first large-scale attempt to create homes that use near net zero energy.
Stephen Berry
Air conditioning changed both building design and people’s active management of home temperatures. A return to houses designed for our climate can keep us comfortable and cut energy use and emissions.
Although tiny houses take many forms, most are situated in rural or semi-rural areas.
Jekka Shearer
Tiny houses aren’t for everyone, but most people who live in them are positive about the experience. Yet planning laws still make this way of life harder and less secure than it could be.
The extra $1 billion Premier Gladys Berejiklian (left) and Social Housing Minister Pru Goward say will be ‘harnessed’ for social housing is actually Commonwealth Rent Assistance for which tenants transferred to community housing providers become eligible.
Simon Bullard/AAP
For the first time a state government housing agency has effectively contracted out all its operations in some regions, but will this improve and add to the total social housing stock?
To make a success of moving home, to the country for example, it helps to be open to the ways a place will change you.
Rachael Wallis
Think moving won’t change you? You might want to rethink that. To feel ‘at home’ you need to accept the new place where you live as part of your changing identity.