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Cities to be part of new three tiered approach to greater prosperity
Australia’s 12 largest cities today called for a formal agreement between the three tiers of government to collaboratively deliver better city prosperity, liveability and sustainability.
Meeting in Canberra to support a submission to the Federal Government on the development of a national urban policy, city leaders said a tripartite framework of Federal, State and Local Governments was critical to attaining national outcomes on these issues.
“The way forward is through the sharing of local knowledge, experience and intelligence on implementing successful outcomes,” commented the Chair of the Council of Capital City Lord Mayors (CCCLM) and Lord Mayor Darwin Graeme Sawyer.
“It’s crunch time, and unless we respond to this urgency we will not deliver the urban outcomes Australia needs.
“The Major Cities, conscious of climate change and our ageing population, can deliver in a timely and efficient manner,” Mr Sawyer said at a special summit on leadership and action.
The CCCLM has joined with Major City partners Newcastle, Wollongong, Geelong and the Gold Coast to develop the Towards a City Strategy position paper for influencing the make-up of the Federal Government’s national urban policy.
Australia’s largest cities produce 80 per cent of national Gross domestic product and are home to 75 per cent of the nation’s population.
Mr Sawyer said the parties were encouraged by the support for improved communication from senior levels of Government and examples of more integrated planning.
“The tiers of government have been too fragmented for too long,” Mr Sawyer added.
The Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, the Hon Anthony Albanese, told the summit the Federal Government valued the dialogue with the Major Cities in developing its National Urban Policy.
“We have changed the partnership between local and national government structurally and beyond the occasional. Never again will there be such a gap between these two levels of government,” he said. “We want a living, breathing document that evolves as our Cities evolve.”
Mr Albanese commended the Major Cities and City Councils for their work on major projects such as the Northbridge Rail Project in Perth and the Ipswich motorway in Queensland, which he said set a new precedent for partnership between Local, State and Federal Government.
Mr Albanese indicated the National Urban Policy would be launched before the end of the year. Earlier the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Campbell Newman, told the summit that “centralisation of decision making on planning and implementation is not the answer.”
“We know from experience on our town planning programs that the best results emerge when the main tiers of government are involved in good collaborative process.”
The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore MP, said it was vital that State and Federal Governments work with the city to remove the legislative brakes on the introduction of cleaner localised energy generation systems, or trigeneration.
“Governments did this in the UK years ago, and now London and Woking draw their own power locally and not from coal-fired plants, slashing emissions and the power bills of consumers. “If we get government agreement, we will achieve the same results here.”
The Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi, advised the summit that boosting the City’s stocks of affordable, public and key worker housing, along with increased hotel supply, were crucial to Perth’s ability to fully secure its economic prosperity.
“We know what we need to do and how to do it, but Federal and State collaboration is a must to get these developments fully planned, developed and implemented in an agreed timeframe.”
Media Contact Cheryl Thomas, Executive Director, CCCLM, 0433 781 925
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