On September 14, 2022 we descended on the Kelvin Club (and online) to listen to Economist Brendan Coates delivering a sobering, hopeful evidenced based address. 

The 131st Henry George Commemorative Address Dinner and Address attracted a diverse crowd from across Australian civil society. There was a strong presence of economists, planners, housing advocates, policy makers and long-term Georgists. 

One thing was certain: despite all the diversity, all participants were heavily vested to the solutions to the intergenerational housing crisis. 

Brendan’s key message: Australia would have done well – possibly much better than we have done – if we heeded the lessons of Henry George and paid more attention to the economics of land.

The Great Australian Nightmare received extensive media coverage in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, Financial Review and many more.

You can watch the full address on Prosper’s YouTube channel, or do not feel like watching? You can listen to the address or read the address via the Grattan Institute. 

“This is a problem we can fix, but only if we make the right choices,” the Grattan Institute Economist left us as he ended his address on the Great Australian Nightmare.

Brendan Coates joins the ranks of great speakers like Canberra architect Walter Burley Griffin and former Treasurer Jim Cairns, and the inimitable Saul Eslake.