Cities

Pros & cons

The current path vs the MMA plan.

Cons: the existing system and current trajectory. Pros: the integrated MMA corridor programme.

Cons of the current system & plan

Sydney and Melbourne to add 2.5-3 million people each by 2056

Existing capital city infrastructure is already strained. Adding the equivalent of an Adelaide to each of Sydney and Melbourne over 30 years, on existing infrastructure, produces predictable outcomes: housing crisis, transport overload, services failure.

Housing affordability has not been solved by any current policy

Decades of housing assistance, first-home buyer schemes, and stamp duty reform have not moved median house price to median income ratios meaningfully. Existing levers have failed at scale.

Regional cities not viable alternatives at current transport speeds

Without genuinely commutable regional access, families cannot choose regional living without sacrificing employment. Inland Australia therefore remains uninvited to absorb metropolitan population growth.

Inland depopulation accelerating

Regional centres lose population, services, schools, and hospitals while coastal capitals overflow. The structural decline of inland Australia has been a one-way trend for forty years.

No national settlement policy

Australia has no integrated national policy for where new cities should be located, how they should be planned, or how their infrastructure should be funded. New towns are not built; suburban sprawl continues at the edge of existing capitals.

Indigenous economic participation limited

Despite traditional ownership of significant portions of Australia, Indigenous Australians remain economically underrepresented. No infrastructure programme of national scale has been built with Indigenous co-design and royalty participation at its core.

Pros of the MMA plan

200 corridor towns and 11 new intersection cities

Genuinely new viable settlements along the corridor - not suburban sprawl but planned, infrastructure-complete inland communities. Housing supply expands by adding new geography, not by stacking taller on existing geography.

Maglev makes regional cities commutable

30-minute journeys from Sydney CBD to Newcastle, Goulburn, and the Hunter Valley. Regional living becomes a genuine choice without sacrificing employment access. Decentralisation that finally works because the transport actually works.

Coastal capitals relieved of population pressure

Sydney and Melbourne population pressure reduces as new regional alternatives become viable. Existing infrastructure, housing, and services in capital cities stop falling further behind.

Education and health infrastructure built in deliberately

University and TAFE campuses, regional hospitals, and specialist services planned into corridor cities from inception rather than retrofitted under development pressure.

Indigenous economic sovereignty

The corridor passes through traditional country across the continent. Partnership creates the largest single economic uplift opportunity for Traditional Owners in Australian history - royalty arrangements, employment, planning co-design, and new-town economic stakes.

Cultural and community infrastructure designed from the start

Sport, arts, public space, and community facilities planned into new intersection cities deliberately rather than added incrementally under development pressure.

Cost and Return Summary

The dollar case for Cities

CapexCorridor towns and the 11 intersection cities are not built by the SBC — they are settlements that become viable because the SBC corridor connects them. The SBC delivers the connection (rail, power, water, fibre); the cities are built by state and local government, property developers, and residents over time. Corridor infrastructure capex is in Memo 19.

Tier 1 — Direct SBC revenueNo direct SBC revenue stream from cities themselves — corridor town economic activation flows to state and local government, property markets, and the regional economy.

Tier 2 — Enabled outcomes and cascading upliftInland housing supply cascade (Tier 3): 200+ corridor towns + 11 intersection cities create 500,000 to 1,000,000 additional dwellings over 20 years. The largest single housing supply intervention in Australian history. Coastal capital housing pressure relieved structurally. Property tax base broadens. Land value uplift across the corridor catchment. See Memo 20 §4.5, 6.1, 6.3.

Without SBC — what Australia spends insteadWithout SBC, federal and state housing programmes commit $170–330 B over 20 years on continuing demand management and marginal coastal supply. No structural intervention. The housing affordability crisis continues. Coastal capital congestion continues. Memo 21 §6.2.

Programme-wide ROI summary → · Memo 19 (cost) · Memo 20 (returns) · Memo 21 (counterfactual)