Comments about South Korea

 This was written ten years ago and unfortunately is still relevant today. The numbers have not been changed and hence are relevant to ten years ago.

A few comments about South Korea that relate to the budget

We need to emulate a few South Korean ideas.

The first idea would be in relation to the fact that Sydney has a public housing waiting list of 59,500.

What are the advantages of constructing new public housing?

More jobs.

More demand for housing materials.

More happy renters.

I was in South Korea for four years and 60% of the population preferred apartment living to living in detached houses. Some of the apartment buildings are 21 stories tall. Most are not that tall. They take a long time to construct and house around 500 families each. They did not have a problem with graffiti, but probably they believe in corporal punishment. You would need to have cameras everywhere and a suitable punishment system in place before you followed their lead in this regard. However 100 towers in 2 years and you have solved the current problem. Obviously you would need to get a lot of Korean engineers to come to show you what to do.

Looking at the housing we have in Australia and the problem it creates by causing cities to be spread over ridiculous areas I want you to contemplate again the 60% of Koreans who prefer apartment living. The cities in Australia need to start going up instead of more out.

Get on Google maps and put the following address in the search box.

Pyeongnae-dong, Namyangju-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

Notice the forest of 21 storey apartment buildings. There is a similar forest just to the north.

Notice that the subway station is 200m long. When you visit Korea you must make sure you get on the subway and explore Seoul.

The subway reaches there since we lived in Naegak-ri. They had just started building the first 21 storey apartment building in our village. That was 2003. Put the following address in Google maps and see how many apartment buildings have been put up in the last twelve years. Since we were there they have apparently built a highway to cope with the increased traffic.

Naegak-ri, Jinjeop-eup, Namyangju-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

You will also have noticed the huge amount just north of the village. That amount alone would probably solve the Sydney public housing problem. I assume you also noticed that all this construction has taken place about 20 km from Seoul. Note that – only 20 km. When we were there Seoul had 16 million people.

The second idea would be with respect to electricity generation. While Australia is 75 times the size of South Korea the comparison with the more densely populated areas such as the East Coast of Australia makes the density contrast to be much less. Ten years ago nuclear power stations made up 29% of their electricity generation capacity. However it constituted 50% of their actual production as it was the source that was always working so made up the base load. They have four power stations with 24 reactors around the coast. We would not need as many to produce a big percentage of our electricity and fix our carbon problem.

After living near Seoul we were in Gwangju which is 290 km south of Seoul. About 90 minutes from Gwangju there is a nuclear power station I visited. There are 6 reactors. Each produces 1,000 MW. Hence a total of 6,000 MW. It occupies an area similar to that of the solar power station near Canberra that was recently in the news which produces 20 MW. Another has just been announced that will produce 50 MW. The Chinese can have a nuclear power station operating 4 years after they start construction. If we are serious about doing something about our carbon emissions we can have several nuclear reactors up and running before 2020.

The third relates to priorities. They have about 50 million people and are world leaders in car making, ship building and electronics. The government favours industry rather than the people. Social services is poor compared to Australia. They have no resources and yet have loads of industry. We have all the resources and no industry. Somehow we need to swap things around so this country starts adding value to its exports before sending them overseas.