Simple governance to address city planning complexity

AUSTRALIAN cities need Metropolitan Planning Authorities to drive strategic land use planning and the development of transformative transport infrastructure, according to the Bus Industry Confederation.

The Confederation will advocate for the introduction of Metropolitan Planning Authorities when it appears before the Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities at a public hearing for an inquiry into the development of cities in Canberra tomorrow.

Committee Chair, John Alexander OAM MP, said the Committee has been grappling with how best to align Australia’s three levels of government to drive the development of more productive, environmentally and socially sustainable cities.

“Australian cities are becoming more and more complex. Many of the concerns we have about our cities, such as traffic congestion, social exclusion and high carbon emissions cannot be effectively addressed without an integrated, system-wide response,” Mr Alexander said.

“We need to identify the best way of aligning federal, state and local governments, and the different public service entities at each level of government, to pursue shared objectives for our cities.”

The Bus Industry Confederation suggested that the difficulties Australian cities have in establishing and pursuing integrated, strategic cities policy is partly a function of the nation’s adversarial political environment. 

“The international examples … suggest that high levels of community engagement in setting a vision and goals for a city and in determining long term strategic development directions provide buy-in to support long term bipartisan approaches,” the Confederation said.

“They also suggest that local government can play a useful role in achieving community buy-in, if it can think regionally (beyond its own patch).”

“Establishment of Metropolitan Planning Authorities for each of our capital cities … where board membership is split equally between representatives of state government and local government, should be supportive of better planning and deliver better outcomes.”

 

Public hearing details: 

 5.00 pm – 6.30 pm, Tuesday 24 October 2017
Committee Room 1R3, Parliament House, Canberra

5.00 pm: Bus Industry Confederation
6.30 pm: Close
 

The proceedings will be broadcast live at aph.gov.au/live.

Further information on the inquiry, including the full terms of reference, is available on the Committee website.

Interested members of the public may wish to track the committee via the website. 

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