As for housing, Dutton wants to develop it. Labor wants to build.

Your children are leaving – to the country Far, Far Away.

Some, such as Senator David Pocock, have rightly criticized the Coalition’s policies from an environmental perspective for freezing green building standards.

However, my main concerns are generational and geographic, and they come from personal experience. My friends and I, mostly young millennials or older Gen Zers, mostly chose to spend our 20s renting in a suburb close to where we grew up (north east Melbourne) or move closer to our jobs in center. But as we approach our 30s, some, tired of constant moving and the second-class citizenship that comes with renting, are looking to buy property and move to bigger places before potentially starting families.

They are almost always disappointed. Due to the lack of affordable housing options for families in inner suburbs that are not yet occupied by older people, many young people are forced to move further away from where they grew up towards the suburban outskirts. The Coalition’s urban vision perpetuates and accelerates this stratification by prioritizing greater urban sprawl over development projects.

Continuing to expand the periphery of our cities is extremely expensive and irrational. Flora and fauna must be cleansed. New schools, hospitals and public transport lines must be built, and this costs much more than upgrading existing ones – as Labor Housing Minister Claire O’Neill points out, the Coalition fund will not support such vital social infrastructure. Because public transit projects typically lag behind the construction of new housing developments, new residents become especially dependent on cars, increasing congestion, travel times and emissions.

But perhaps the most overlooked pitfall is the social one. Moving away from their families and social networks, these young families either become more socially isolated or spend a lot of time commuting back to where they grew up, again increasing congestion. Their access to family support for issues such as childcare becomes limited.

Boomers, ask yourself: Is this really the future you want? A future in which you either barely see your children and grandchildren or are forced to travel for hours to and from their distant homes?

Perhaps some Brighton residents will be wealthy enough to help their children buy a house in a more convenient location. But even for reasonably comfortable middle-class parents who can help on a small scale, the realities of our unaffordable sprawl are now beginning to sink in.

“The City with No Children”

When I was a teenager, my friends and I loved the Arcade Fire album. Suburb is a record that evokes both nostalgia and alienation from suburbs like ours. A particularly memorable track was “City With No Children.” Today this proposal is becoming increasingly easy to imagine. When we grew up and left, fewer and fewer young people replaced us.

Recent data confirms that we are indeed living in cities with fewer and fewer children as young families are pushed to the periphery. Some particularly wealthy and walled inner suburbs have been dubbed “tombstone suburbs” because more residents die each year than are born or move.

For example, the average age in Brighton is now 48 to 17 years older than Craigieburn in Melbourne’s north. In Sydney’s Double Bay Darling Point, people over 65 make up approximately 25% of the population, while in Oran Park in the city’s southwest they make up just 5%.

Increasing development opportunities in hinterland areas adjacent to transport is partly aimed at reversing this trend, as well as reducing dependence on cars. Analysis by activist group YIMBY in Melbourne, for example, shows that 23 of the 25 activity centers announced by the Allan government are in areas where the child population has fallen between the 2016 and 2021 censuses.

Can Allan bring young people back to our suburbs?

I want to live close to my family. Is it too much to ask?

I currently live approximately 10,000 miles away from my friends, family, and our family dog, Rusty. Of course, I decided to leave my loved ones in Melbourne and move to London, and I don’t regret that choice.

However, I miss them dearly, and when I finally return home, I intend to make up for lost time. In particular, I hope to live close enough to them that I can stop by often and take Rusty for another walk through familiar neighborhoods.

The Labor Party is by no means perfect on housing and is particularly lacking in ambition at the federal level. But Allan’s plan provides the boldest and most realistic means of reducing the displacement of young people in Melbourne, as do similar efforts by Chris Minns in New South Wales.

Its effects will be felt not only in rents and GDP, but also in less quantifiable ways for those we care about. We often discuss housing policy in dry numerical terms, but we should not underestimate its profound impact on our social and family lives.

Some young people who want a big backyard will undoubtedly still move to the suburbs, but my generation will hopefully soon have more options to stay closer to home, like townhomes and apartments. It will simply take enough urban boomers to recognize their interest in supporting the gradual densification of their areas.

I sincerely hope there are more options like this before I finally fly back to Melbourne. If not, and especially if the current generation of coalition deputies comes to power, my generation will have a long way to go to God knows where.