INDUSTRY INSIGHT
WE NEED A NEW VISION
FOR CITIES by Andrew Giles MP, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure
T
he COVID-19 pandemic struck at the heart of how cities work. Lockdowns denied the connections that drive our urban economies and the communities they serve. Now, as we plan our recovery, we have to ensure that we have learned the lessons of the past year and recognise that we should see the pandemic experience as something that has accelerated pre-existing trends, and exposed weaknesses, in how our cities function. For national government, this means getting the framework for a national approach to urban policy right. LABOR’S APPROACH The approach Anthony Albanese announced in March 2021 would do just that – fixing the broken machinery that has held back the development of our cities. With cities generating around 80 per cent of Australia’s GDP, this is vital. Labor will implement six measures to reframe cities policy in the wake of the pandemic and the recession: 1. Transform City Deals into genuine City Partnerships 2. Revitalise our CBDs 3. Renew the independent role of Infrastructure Australia in urban planning 4. Deliver a new National Urban Policy framework 5. Publish annual State of the Cities Report 6. Give local government a voice in a meaningful National Cabinet process City Deals were intended to bring together all three levels of government, with the private sector, to realise shared visions for our cities. But this aspiration hasn’t been realised. There is little evidence of genuine, city-shaping collaboration. None are generating the private investment they should be.
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June 2021 // Issue 19
Real city partnerships are required to turn this around, and to secure more productive, liveable and sustainable cities.
REBUILDING AND REIMAGINING CBDs Our approach recognises that an imperative must be to revive our CBDs. And that this means reimagining them, and how they work. Over the past decade, around half the new jobs we’ve generated have been located in and around the centres of Melbourne and Sydney. We can’t assume that this situation will simply right itself, nor that just pleading with office workers to return to their desks will do the job. We need a plan for our city centres, which recognises the changes likely to be wrought by a shift towards the workplace as a place of collaboration rather than of task-performance, and by the rise of dispersed or hybrid work. Labor’s vision is for equally vibrant – but different – city centres. The economics of agglomeration haven’t changed, but new opportunities are presenting themselves as well as new perspectives of pre-existing challenges like congestion, and the impact on the infrastructure requirements of cities – most obviously transit. The latest report by the Property Council and Ernst and Young, Reimagining Our Economic Powerhouses, makes clear that all levels of government and business must work together to revitalise our CBDs. What’s missing here, though, is national leadership, compounded by the decision of the Morrison Government to deny local government its rightful and necessary place around the National Cabinet table. We can get ahead of the game, but we need to bring all affected and interested parties together.
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