The idea had great merit. Sydney is becoming an overcrowded city and the government is prepared to pay residents to relocate to regional cities - but both Newcastle and Wollongong have been included in this $ 7000 offer.
So - we have the farcical situation that if a resident of Wollongong decides to move to Shellharbour or Kiama - the public purse will cough up a $ 7000 bounty. Neither Newcastle or Wollongong are part of Sydney and neither are overcrowded - so why has this scheme included them ?
It might have made more sense to exclude Newcastle and Wollongong from a destination for those fleeing Sydney so that these big regional cities would not hog the distribution of new households to the smaller cities which are in need of stimulating new growth - but that is not the way this scheme has been orchestrated.
Basically, you can get a $ 7000 handout by simply relocating from one part of what is really " greater Wollongong " to another part of the city, which simply goes under the name of the suburbs of Shellharbour or Kiama. Or as the people of Shellharbour might argue - to the city of Shellharbour from it's suburb of Wollongong !
The rules are quite clear. This plan has a four year life span and is expected to cost $ 280 million. It will be capped at a capacity of 40,000 households - and to be eligible a resident must sell a house in the target location - and buy a house in an approved regional area.
By all means try to reduce the spiralling population of Sydney and advantage the regional cities in desperate need of growth - but to include the next two biggest cities in this state who have no size problems - is simply ludicrous !
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