strangely enough the Bankstown area is highly sought after these days. ex-housing commission fibro shacks are going for $1m plus. that's just for the land; they usually get turned into a duplex so more cars, more traffic, more pollution. lots of people in my old area used to burn wood for heat in the winter so you'd have all these chimneys spewing out PM2.5 etc. it gives Bangkok a run for its money in the AQI stakes ????
that's why I'm not really fazed by what the Thais get up to here because they're not that much different to what I'm used to back home. the main difference is that Australia has better law enforcement. if they were as lax as the BiB I reckon the outcome would be much the same. probably worse, they'd put even bigger mudflaps on their trucks to make them look "fully sick" ????
ps. I dunno about Redfern now but years ago it was well dodgy. Sydney city and Kings Cross at night were also very dangerous for a while, there was a big spate of 'coward punch' attacks that left a few people dead including one 18 yo kid who had just stepped out of a taxi on his first trip to the Cross. Thailand has its flaws but I don't know that I've ever read of stuff like that happening here. usually you have to provoke someone to get a kicking here.