Jonathan O'Brien
@jonobri.com
📤 622
📥 228
📝 310
Writer, software dev, lead organiser yimbymelbourne.org.au //
[email protected]
//
[email protected]
wake up babe new brattan report just dropped
14 days ago
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The changes to CGT and Negative Gearing are good tax policy—but they’re not a meaningful housing policy. All available research tells us these policies explain less than 5% of house prices. But the new Local Infrastructure Fund is a juicy $2 billion carrot.
21 days ago
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By tying the new infrastructure fund to meaningful statewide planning and construction reform, the Feds are upping the stakes for states to do what’s right and make housing legal and easy to build where people want to live. This is the first real piece of Commonwealth housing leadership.
23 days ago
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Very excited to be hosting the Birthright film Premier and Q&A next Monday 11th at the brand new Brunswick Picture House. This is a brand new Australian film about struggling with the housing crisis. It’s dark, funny, and—most of all—it’s fun.
29 days ago
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reposted by
Jonathan O'Brien
Warren Wells, AICP
about 1 month ago
Planners only want one thing and it's disgusting.
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The Planning Institute’s call for a National Settlement Strategy is finally live. They provide four indicators of success. The good news for the PIA is that there is one clear way to improve all of these indicators: broad-based upzoning of all Australian inner-cities.
about 2 months ago
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Absolutely delighted to publish Ryan Ginard on Australia’s urgent need for charitable giving reform. Ryan’s article appears in the fourth edition of Inflection Points, alongside Allegra Spender, Tim Nelson and team, and Keith Wolahan.
3 months ago
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Australia faces three major crises: housing, energy, and productivity. Boundless is a book about how we might confront these great problems of our time, and it’s coming out in 2027. Co-written with the excellent
@howardfmaclean.bsky.social
and published by also-excellent Pantera Press.
3 months ago
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After more than a decade of entering writing prizes, I am absolutely honoured to find myself on the other side. Introducing the $5,000 Inflection Points Writing Prize—for the best new piece of writing about the problems Australia faces, and the solutions within our grasp.
4 months ago
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In September of last year, I was lucky enough to have dinner with Alain Bertaud—author of Order without Design, one of the best books ever written about cities—in a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. Now, he’s coming to Australia.
4 months ago
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Last night, the Planning Amendment Bill 2025 passed the Legislative Council. This is an astronomically impactful reform. Congratulations to
@australianlabor.bsky.social
,
@greens.org.au
,
@davidlimbrick.bsky.social
, and
@animaljusticeparty.bsky.social
for forming a cross-partisan, pro-housing bloc.
6 months ago
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I do not think it is a fair test to show people two crooked photos and one AI render and expect to receive an instructive set of opinions.
bsky.app/profile/dbro...
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David Broockman (@dbroockman.bsky.social)
These are the building designs we used in the second experiment. NB: I used to live in building (b), and it passed SF's design review. Voters hate it and don't want to approve housing like it! Maybe…
https://bsky.app/profile/dbroockman.bsky.social/post/3m6i5nqnppt2d
6 months ago
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This new work from
@grattaninstitute.bsky.social
is nothing short of seminal. For too long we have let our cities be locked up by bad, unjustifiable land use and housing policy. But the tide is turning on bad policy—and that is for the better.
bsky.app/profile/grat...
7 months ago
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Why does Australia have so many live house auctions? On my recent trip around the US, I learned that the Saturday morning pastime of house auctions are mostly unique to Australia. So I set out to investigate.
8 months ago
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reposted by
Jonathan O'Brien
Howard Maclean
8 months ago
@jonobri.com
hits the grey elephant in the new city debate - that the vast majority of regional towns and small cities are determined to avoid growing any larger than they currently are.
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Jonathan O'Brien
Andrew Donnellan
8 months ago
As a proud Canberran, and being regional New South Welsh by birth, I agree with this. It's taken a century to build Canberra - a city built to solve a specific problem, not for housing - into a real city. Let's not repeat that. We need to interrogate the mindset of large towns versus small cities.
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Jonathan O'Brien
Bryn Davidson - Lanefab
8 months ago
The Connecticut news opted for a photo of the Vancouver guy and Melbourne guy when talking about
#Yimbytown2025
#NewHaven
@desegregatect.bsky.social
www.ctpublic.org/news/2025-09...
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The largest pro-housing conference in the US meets in New Haven
The YIMBYTown conference, which stands for “Yes in my backyard,” runs from Sunday through Tuesday. More than 1,000 housing advocates, policy makers and state and local politicians gathered downtown to...
https://www.ctpublic.org/news/2025-09-15/the-largest-pro-housing-conference-in-the-us-meets-in-new-haven
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No, Australia does not need new cities. My new essay sets the record straight: we have a lot of cities, but we aren’t using them as well as we could be. To make our cities more successful, we have to open up a lot more land for commercial uses to enable agglomeration.
8 months ago
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big things are happening
9 months ago
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reposted by
Jonathan O'Brien
Emily Hamilton
9 months ago
Great piece on the intersection of housing, demographics, and schools in Australian cities by Katie Roberts-Hull. What's worse for neighborhood incumbents than school crowding? School closures.
inflectionpoints.work/articles/the...
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A flagrant violation of what it means to live in a city.
9 months ago
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It is fantastic to see Clare O’Neil and the Federal Government increasingly on-message about the housing crisis. The Minns and Allen governments are undertaking some of the most meaningful and ambitious housing reforms in decades. Federal Government backing is crucial— 🧵
9 months ago
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Today we
@yimby.melbourne
drop our new research note, demonstrating the bias of opt-in community consultation. It will shock no one who’s paying attention, but our sample of 15 consults across six councils found a massive overrepresentation of homeowners and older folk.
9 months ago
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The conservative stalwarts over at Charter 29 have put out a new report on Victorian planning reform. It reveals a complete lack of understanding. They think the 'missing middle' is a set of suburbs—but no, it's the medium density housing that they'd like to see remain banned.
10 months ago
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reposted by
Jonathan O'Brien
YIMBY Melbourne
10 months ago
We used to build 50 homes per planner annually, but now it’s less than 9. Alan Kohler covering our recent research note on planner productivity 👇
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iEh...
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What’s slowing down housing development? | Alan Kohler | ABC NEWS
YouTube video by ABC News (Australia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iEhm-3RhOs
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Absolutely awesome to see my dear friend and collaborator Siang Lu take home the Miles Franklin Award for his excellent novel Ghost Cities. The devil works hard. Siang Lu works harder.
10 months ago
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The
@inflectionpoints.work
launch made an enormous splash. I could not be more proud of what we have already achieved. Our Melbourne launch event is next week, free, and getting booked out fast. Get yours at the link below!
10 months ago
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Yes, it is.
10 months ago
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reposted by
Jonathan O'Brien
Andrew Donnellan
11 months ago
This essay won't make the Planning Institute feel any warmer towards
@jonobri.com
, but the time is ripe for a discussion about the outcomes we expect from our land use planners, and how professional doctrine shapes not just the substance but also the framing of land use and housing debates.
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Jonathan O'Brien
Evan Roberts
11 months ago
Interesting article from Australia yesterday about the collapse in the productivity of urban planning: for every planner employed there are many fewer homes being produced
bsky.app/profile/jono...
add a skeleton here at some point
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Thank you to the Australian Financial Review for publishing an op-ed version of The Problem with Urban Planning. Always an honour to be an editor's choice!
bsky.app/profile/jono...
11 months ago
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reposted by
Jonathan O'Brien
Inflection Points
11 months ago
🚨We’re launching the FIRST issue of Inflection Points 🚨 - Michael Brennan & Dan Andrews - Katie Roberts-Hull - Jonathan O’Brien - Andrew Leigh 🧵
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reposted by
Jonathan O'Brien
YIMBY Melbourne
11 months ago
Our lead organiser,
@jonobri.com
, writes for
@inflectionpoints.work
about "The Problem with Urban Planning" 👇
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Jonathan O'Brien
gina rushton
11 months ago
Spoke to dozens of people for this piece on Australia’s attempts to increase housing density, including the housing minister who says this is “not because of a New York Times bestseller”. Have a read!
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...
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YIMBYs vs NIMBYs in the battle for your backyard
The Yes In My Backyard movement is lobbying for denser cities and more housing in places people want to work and live and YIMBYs want these homes built yesterday. But the NIMBYs haven't given up yet.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-13/yimby-nimby-housing-crisis-battle-for-your-backyard/105510984
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The Problem with Urban Planning: a professional silo is gatekeeping our nation's growth. My new essay w/
@inflectionpoints.work
The problem at the heart of planning is not political—it's professional. 🧵
11 months ago
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Soft launching this today. Hard launching this tomorrow.
add a skeleton here at some point
11 months ago
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We are also open to funding from Australian tech billionaires.
11 months ago
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Fringe groups have recently started to push a curious line about upzoning and planning reform: they call it "empirics without a theory". They state this line as if it is a gotcha, but forget one thing: empirics is much more important than theory.
bsky.app/profile/pros...
11 months ago
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This morning, Alan Kohler published an article based on claims from a single conservative legacy planner. Central to the piece is an assertion that Australia needs to develop 34 square kilometres of infill land each year. But it's based on some bizarre assumptions.đź§µ
11 months ago
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reposted by
Jonathan O'Brien
ABC News Bot (unofficial)
11 months ago
Australia's YIMBY movement is relatively new, but it is making an impact and each member has their own housing struggle spurring them on.
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The deeply personal reasons Australians are calling themselves YIMBYs
Australia's YIMBY movement is relatively new, but it is making an impact and each member has their own housing struggle spurring them on.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-29/yimbys-housing-development-sydney-deeply-personal-reasons/105449038
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add a skeleton here at some point
11 months ago
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The Auditor-General is right: Victorians should not be paying for the privilege of having our public sector deskilled. There are two reasons a department might rely on external consultants, and neither is particularly good. đź§µ
12 months ago
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It's disappointing to see arbitrary protectionism continue to entrench itself within Australian governments. The primary role of government should be the efficient delivery of infrastructure and services. Mandating localised inputs will only raise costs and lengthen timelines.
12 months ago
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Over the weekend, various planners praised New South Wales' use of floor area ratio (FAR) as a planning tool. This is deeply troubling, because everything we care about should tell us that Sydney’s planning system is far from a model—rather, it's a cautionary tale.
12 months ago
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reposted by
Jonathan O'Brien
Tom Cowie
12 months ago
Wrote about Japanese kei trucks, an increasingly common sight on Melbourne’s steeets as a smaller alternative to all those truckzillas
www.theage.com.au/national/vic...
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No monster utes, thanks: Compact Japanese trucks are more than oh-kei
With tiny engines and smaller price tags than monster utes, Japanese kei trucks are finding a devoted fan base in Australia.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/no-monster-utes-thanks-compact-japanese-trucks-are-more-than-oh-kei-20250604-p5m4uu.html
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reposted by
Jonathan O'Brien
YIMBY Melbourne
12 months ago
The mandate for building more is clear. Now it's time to do it. 🏗️🏬
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The YIMBY vibeshift continues.
12 months ago
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Recently, a group of conservative planners called Charter 29 presented at the planning reform inquiry. The org proudly names themselves after the never-implemented Melbourne Plan of General Development (1929)—a plan that would have destroyed our city. 🧵
about 1 year ago
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Finally, an Australian localisation.
about 1 year ago
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12 homes will become 140 through emergent behaviour in the market thanks to planning reforms! Legacy planners claim that lot amalgamation is only possible through micromanagement—and time and time again we learn: that just isn’t true!
about 1 year ago
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