Big Australia is of course the notion that this country is going to go from 22 million people currently to 35 million by the middle of the 21st century. The addition of 13 million extra people creates extraordinary business challenges.
We need new infrastructure, new housing, more transportation; my view is that we will actually need new cities.
In the same way that we created the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast and Harvey Bay and Mandurah over the last 50 years I think over the next 50 years the extra 13 million people will result in new cities. And those cities in my view will more likely will be up north, in the north-west.
But this is not to say that the transition will be easy, of course there are extraordinary challenges associated with the transition, and there are a lot of people in the community that are very concerned about this. The impact on the environment for example, where are we going to get the water, these are all issues that I think need to be managed.
But I believe these issues can be managed. It might mean changes to the way we live. It may mean every household in Australia for example has a water tank. Or that every household in Australia has a solar panel making a contribution to the power grid, these are some of the ways I think we can manage the transition to Big Australia.
Big Australia means opportunity for Australian business. The opportunity to provide more housing. 13 million extra people, taking us from 22 to 35 million people will in fact require something like 7 million new dwellings.
Houses that have to be constructed, developed, financed, furnished, inhabited, in the next 40 years. Our cities must expand. In terms of government, it’s the management, the strategic planning if you like, the delivery of services and infrastructure to make sure that our cities and towns are growing at the right rate. So that if you actually get these things out of kilter you find that there are too many people chasing to few houses and you get a property bubble.
So you need to make sure that these things are managed quite carefully in a very considered way. We have a big ambition for this nation and it will only be achieved if business and government and frankly the community share the same vision.
So at an uppermost level, I think CEOs, Boards of Directors, need to be looking at where Australia is going, and asking that question, are we in the right space, do we have the right equipment, do we have the right product range to meet the challenges of Big Australia?
Managing the transition of Australia from 22 million to 35 million will have an extraordinary impact on the public and private sector; this is where groups like KPMG can make a profound difference.
We have the skill sets, we have the experience in order to help in a very practical way the transition towards a bigger Australia. Particularly in terms of infrastructure, climate change, strategy for example, and I would like to think that I’m making my own contribution in this regard by pointing out both the benefits and the challenges that Big Australia will bring to this nation over the next 40 years.