However, not once during these elongated car park experiences did I think to blame the couple of hundred thousand migrants that arrived on our shores, Australia-wide, over the last 12 months. The 8 million tourists last year probably were a more significant contributor.

Similarly, I can’t “blame” the crisis in housing affordability on migration, although it has clearly added to the demand side of the problem.

Traffic congestion and the collapse in housing affordability are much more due to what have been poor and failed infrastructure, transport, housing, and planning policies over the last couple of decades.

The media this week has been saturated with stories calling for a longer-term population policy, the appointment of a Population Minister, and so on. I would say a strong YES to both. But, neither, in and of themselves, would make a scrap of difference to our current traffic and housing crises.

Similarly, calls for a significant cut in immigration, say a halving of the annual intake, won’t help our current crises much, but would work to stop us compounding the problems in the near term. 

However, there is no doubt that much of our post WWII growth and development has been due to our very successful, largely bi-partisan, immigration policies, and our creation of the world’s most tolerant and effective, multicultural, multiracial, and multi-religious society stands as perhaps our greatest national post-war achievement, and the envy of the world.

But, having said that, it does need to be managed; it is a continuous “work in progress”. The approach must be holistic. It is not the level of immigration that is the problem, rather the failing to put in place the essential social and economic infrastructure, and appropriate planning, and integrated transport policies, that has created the problems.

Australia clearly needs a full, open debate about population and immigration. Unfortunately, there are some who would use this as “code” to pursue a racist agenda – you know, “nudge, nudge, wink, wink”, we are really about clamping down on say Muslim immigration, and the like. There should be no place for such sentiments and agendas in a mature, responsible debate.

A key element of a sensible population debate is population density. The density of Sydney and Melbourne is much, much less than in other major, global cities such as London, Paris, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. But again, the solution is not just more high-rise developments, but also better open spaces, integrated transport, adequate schools, hospitals, childcare facilities, and so on. This sort of planning has been inadequate, especially given divided responsibilities between state and local governments.

From the point of view of traffic, perhaps our greatest failing has been the inadequacy of our public transport system. The usual excuse is inadequacy of finance, but there are innovative financing alternatives that have never been pursued. So we settle for more, but inadequate roads.

We can, and should, do better!