Alan Morris, University of Technology Sydney; Hal Pawson, UNSW Sydney; Kath Hulse, Swinburne University of Technology, and Violet Xia, University of Technology Sydney
While politicians ignore calls to raise Newstart, alarming levels of financial stress among private renters, particularly in low-rent outer suburbs, show why current welfare payments are too low.
Sydney has joined more than 600 local governments around the world – as well as the national governments of the UK and Canada – in putting the climate crisis at the heart of all policy decisions.
When a city gets to a certain size, it starts to make sense to have multiple centres of activity, and three are planned for Sydney. So what needs to be done to bring the city closer to this goal?
In Sydney, 44 of 178 train stations have a single side entrance. It adds up to 12 minutes of daily travel time for people walking the long way to their platform. It’s enough to make some drive instead.
For two decades, a competitive design process pioneered by Sydney City Council has been transforming the city skyline and, new research shows, raising standards as it goes.
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.
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.
Rob Roggema, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen
Cities around the world are redeveloping their waterfronts to be accessible and resilient to the effects of climate change. Here’s where Sydney’s Darling Harbour went wrong and what we can do better.
It’s tempting to blame building certifiers and the fact they are privately employed. But the cracks in the quality of our apartment buildings go deeper and can be fixed.
Working-class residents of Waterloo have a history of resisting threats to their community. Many tenants see the redevelopment of public housing as state-led gentrification to squeeze them out.
To stay safe in a tsunami, remember that the sequence of waves may occur over hours to days, and the biggest wave in the sequence could occur at any time.
The New South Wales government has turned its back on plans to create sanctuary zones covering 2.4% of waters around Sydney, despite evidence that these ‘no-take’ areas are crucial for protecting fish.
Every year, our big cities vie for global liveability honours. But as well as differences between the cities, liveability varies widely within them, leaving plenty of work to be done.
The ibis has become an Australian cultural phenomenon. The birds’ tenacity and fearlessness as environmental refugees mean they attract love and hate alike.
Sydney’s supervised injection room in Kings Cross has helped reduce harmful drug use. But many drug users who live in the outer suburbs find it difficult to get to the inner-city facility.
PhD Candidate, School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania, and Senior Research Consultant, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney