City Strategies National Issues – Why Government Inertia?

“State and federal governments have their heads in the sand around the evolution and growth of cities,” says Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, slamming lack of policy.

Should Cities Rule The World?

This is the question Clover Moore presented when delivering the Walter Burley Griffin lecture at the National Press Club recently. She has concerns that the federal government is failing to articulate a cities’ policy to manage growth, and that it has committed to fund roads over public transport.

Key Points

“Australian governments are failing to recognise the potential for cities to drive national growth. Britain, New Zealand, China, Poland and Brazil are all examples where national strategies have the potential to give local governments improved access to finance – and to power.”

There is:

• a need to provide for families wanting to live in the city – numbers are expected to grow 45% by 2031
• a subsequent need to increase urban density, encouraging development on former industrial sites
• a need to support Trigeneration – Trigeneration is an extremely efficient decentralised energy technology where electricity is made near where it is used, avoiding the need to bring electricity over long distances. It replaces coal-fired electricity and reduces emissions from connected buildings.
• We shouldn’t
  

  “sentence young people to life in the outskirts of suburbia, cut off from effective transport and services..but how to persuade a nation that historically embraced suburbia, that life can work and thrive in cities?”

Sydney’s Green Square Urban Renewal Project

Green Square, when completed, will house 54,000 residents and provide jobs for 22,000 workers.

Built on a former industrial site Green Square will be an example of green living with developments linked to recycled water, people linked to shops, parks, gardens and entertainment with bike and walking routes, and public transport.

There have been liquor licensing reforms to allow small bars – a small bar ‘revolution’ opposed by the Australian Hotels Association – and new cycle paths have been introduced, one way of tackling Sydney’s congestion which costs around $5 billion pa, and will double by 2021.

Well said Clover Moore!