on rear suspension bikes with a changing chain length you need something to account for that change in chain length so it doesn't go floppy at certain points of the rear swingarm motion.
I'm not sure Australia has a land problem in general, population density is quite low (I understand that a lot of the land doesn't support high density living). They have an issue in that their major cities have some constraints on perpetual outwards growth. Maybe this will help encourage remote work and relocation of offices to places that aren't the core downtown area of Melbourne and Sydney?