Can Melbourne cope becoming Australia’s biggest city?

Listened to this interesting round table discussion on population growth on ABC Radio National this past weekend. It's an audio recording of a public forum held at Fed Square earlier in 2010.

The topic of the debate was "Can Melbourne still be marvelous with double the population?"

Treasury's most recent Intergenerational Report anticipates that Australia's population will reach 36 million by 2050. Melbourne is Australia's fastest growing city, and on track to overtake Sydney, its population almost doubling to between 7 and 8 million people by mid century.

The debate has a good cross section of panelists:

• Charles Berger - Director of Strategic Ideas, Australian Conservation Foundation
• Saul Eslake - Economist and Program Director, Productivity Growth, The Grattan Institute
• Maurene Horder - CEO The Migration Institute of Australia Limited, Sydney
• Mark O'Connor - Author, Poet and Environmentalist
• Dr Marcus Spiller - Planner and Urban Economist, Founding Director, SGS Economics and Planning

Worth a listen...