With a dramatically rising population and falling infrastructure spending, the pressure for action is growing.

Australia, we have a problem. The faster our population grows, the worse our governments are performing in choosing and building the infrastructure we need to cope with that growth.

Three statistics issued in recent days reveal the scale of the problem.

• On 26 March, the Bureau of Statistics issued the latest national population figures. They revealed that Australia has grown by more than three million people in just eight years to last September. We are gaining almost 400,000 people a year. Every two and a half years or so, we add another million people.

• On 31 March, the Bureau released its regional population estimates for the year to last June. They showed that almost half of that rapid population growth is going into just two cities: Melbourne and Sydney. Add Brisbane and Perth, and almost three-quarters of it is going into just four cities.

In a single decade, Melbourne added three-quarters of a million people; it is now growing at almost 100,000 a year. Sydney added more than 600,000 people – equivalent to adding almost half an Adelaide. Perth’s population swelled by a third, Brisbane’s by a quarter.

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Image: Indigo Skies Photography