Bigger not better
TWO of Noosa's development control architects - former Noosa mayor Noel Playford and ex-senior shire planner Paul Summers - were not "buying" what Mayor Mark Jamieson was "selling" regarding a population cap holding back the economy.
"Fifteen years ago when the planning instruments underpinning the so-called population cap were introduced, doomsayers said the very same thing as Mark," Mr Summers said.
"Noosa's economy would fail, land values would fall and we would suffer at the hands of the bigger economies to our south.
"The opposite occurred."
Mr Summers said if population growth was the foundation of a good economy, then at 7.05 billion people (on the planet), surely we would be booming.
"The fact is that population growth has for too long been used as the foundation, and that is the very reason why the world economy is in the position it is today."
Mr Playford described the mayor's comment as the "same tired old statements that people like Mark have been using for the last 30 years to justify planning for an ever-increasing population on the Sunshine Coast".
"If we only have a bigger population, they tell us, we'll have jobs for everyone because we'll have a strong economy," Mr Playford said. "If that's the case, why is unemployment so high on the Gold Coast?
"Perhaps he can tell us the magic population that will deliver that elusive 'well-developed' economy.
"The population has probably quadrupled in the last 30 years and we're obviously still waiting."
Mr Playford said if Cr Jamieson opened his eyes, he would find many desirable places in the world where the population isn't increasing and there isn't a problem getting taxi drivers, waiters, hairdressers and shop assistants.
"And if he looked he'd also find there is no significant correlation between population and the strength of an economy," Mr Playford said
