Decentralisation won't work

Which idiot dreamed up the idea of paying Sydney residents $7000 to move to the Central Coast?

Why not a bounty for any Central Coast resident who can persuade somebody to move here?

What about a homebuyer subsidy to inflate house prices here again?

Shouldn't the Councils be doing their bit by slashing newcomers' rates at the expense of existing property owners?

What is the benefit to anybody of these kinds of handouts?

This is just another in a long history of political stunts supposedly aimed at shifting the population distribution to accord with some fancied merit in building up the parts of the state that few people want to live in.

They haven't worked in the past, and they won't work now.

By world standards, Sydney is just a medium-sized city, but the present population hasn't got there and doesn't stay there by accident.

People live in the city because the wide selection of employment is there, the entertainment facilities are there, and the medical, educational and other services are there.

It would involve a mammoth cost to create an alternative magnet that would be in any way effective in drawing a significant number of households out of the metropolitan area, and we should all suffer economically as a result of this waste of money.

This is not to mention that the levels of infrastructure and services on the Central Coast are nothing much to write home about already, so what would be the effect of adding large extra numbers of families to the mix?

People who can get jobs here and can see a financial advantage in moving out of Sydney don't need to be bribed to make the move, and anybody who will be influenced by such a paltry incentive probably won't be a great asset to the region.

I am already canvassing everybody I know in Sydney to move here and collect the $7000, after which they can return to Sydney and we can split the profits.

Email, 28 Jun 2011 Bruce Hyland, Daleys Point