Fun Fact! When your co-hosts Michael Bayliss and Mark Allen aren’t making brand new episodes of PGAP, they are involved in many other worthy enterprises. Michael has just co-written a brand new report “Population and the Housing Crisis”. Mark performed his debut show at the Adelaide Fringe, “The Boomer and The Doomer.” Like most things we do, this all flew under the blip of the mainstream media radar, so we took the opportunity this episode to interview each other on our respective endeavours.

It is not a secret to anyone now that Australia is going through a housing emergency. With Australia one of the most unaffordable countries in the world and with many of us in severe housing stress, this reality is very tangible. As housing stress is reaching its peak, our federal government is committing to one of the largest population growth policies in recent decades. The ‘official’ stance is that the housing crisis is a supply based issue – just keep building more! There has been very little written on the ‘demand’ side of the housing equation. Michael found himself one of the few who were brave or foolhardy enough to tackle this issue alongside co-author Dr. Jane O’Sullivan, with whom Sustainable Population Australia commissioned to write the report ‘The Housing Crisis is a Population Growth Crisis.’ For this episode, Mark interviews Michael on the story behind the report and some of its key findings.

(Boomer and the Doomer artwork by Mathisha Wahikala, Mick Thompson and Mark Allen).

The housing emergency is just another in long line of emergencies – take your pick! Climate change, boiling oceans, ecological collapse, resource depletion and other fun things. It can be hard to maintain a poker face through this incessant din of human induced calamities, let alone find time to laugh. Michael interviews Mark’s recent experiences in combining political satire with stand- up comedy in his debut show at the Adelaide fringe with comedian Eric Tinker. Combined, they performed the duo show ‘The Boomer and The Doomer’ across three sold out nights in March. We muse on bringing humour into Degrowth conversations, which has been one of PGAP’s key objectives since day one. Eric Tinker's 'MC Boomer rap' can be viewed here on YouTube.

(Ice cover artwork by Robert Smith and Mark Allen).

We also take time in the episode to play a some choice tracks, 'Ice' and 'A Deer Caught In The Highlights' from Mark and Michael's respective music projects, 'Counting Backwards' and 'Shock Octopus'.

PGAP will soon be winding down for a short break between our fourth and fifth seasons. This is a perfect time to contact PGAP to let us know your feedback and what themes or guests you would like us to explore next time around. Our recent upswing in downloads continues - be part of this movement! Share this and other episodes to your family, friends and networks. Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or your favourite platform.

A big thanks to Sustainable Population Australia for supporting this podcast. You can find out more about your co-hosts Michael Bayliss and Mark Allen at their websites.

Episode time stamp:

0:00:00 - 0:03:09 Introduction

0:03:00 - 0:05:07 'Ice' by Counting Backwards

0:05:08 - 0:38:05 Housing Crisis? What Housing Crisis!

0:38:06 - 0:42:10 'A Deer Caught In The Headlights' by Shock Octopus

0:42:11 - End The Boomer and the Doomer + Outro

Mark referred to several articles during this show. These include:

"Threat to Albanese Government" - Crispin Hull

"Millions living on city fringes at higher risk of climate disasters as federal government warned of 'national crisis" - ABC

"There is a perfect storm brewing for the housing market and it could make buying your own home a pipedream" - ABC

Mark's article for Independent Australia, "Why the housing crisis is here to stay" can now be read here. A second article, "Economic reform vital to solving housing crisis", has also been published by IA.