The key to liveability - committee meets

VICTORIA’s population growth leads the country, with Melbourne having a population of 4.5 million in a total of 6 million. The key to liveability in the face of such rapid growth is better connectivity and environmental and social sustainability.

With this in mind, the Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities will visit Melbourne as part of its inquiry into the Australian Government’s role in the development of cities. The Committee will inspect a number of environmentally and socially sustainable developments and speak to industry experts, businesses and academics about how population increases can be accommodated without impacting liveability.

Committee Chair, John Alexander OAM MP, said the inquiry has a dual focus on enhancing and adapting existing capital and regional cities, as well as investigating the possible benefits of developing new regional centres.

“We are looking at how we can rebalance our population between major cities and regional areas,” said Mr Alexander.

“This may involve improving the infrastructure and connectivity of existing regional centres to entice people away from capital cities like Melbourne. Or it may be that developing brand new regional centres offers greater opportunity to accommodate a larger Australia in a sustainable manner.

“We’re examining opportunities for the Commonwealth Government to provide leadership in this area.”

Professor Peter Newton of Swinburne University suggested that population decentralisation is unlikely to succeed without better linkages between capital cities and regional centres.

“Traditional 20th century policies focussed on attempts to create new basic industries or relocate federal or state government offices will not succeed,” he submitted.

“Twenty-first century agglomeration economies favour large cities and will continue to do so until provincial cities become part of a functional mega-metropolitan region centres on a major capital city…”

Public hearing details: 9.00 am – 3.10 pm, Tuesday 29 August 2017, Room G3, Parliamentary Annex, Parliament of Victoria

9.00 am– 9.40 am: SGS Economics and Planning
9.40 am – 10.20 am: Centre for Urban Research RMIT
10.40 am – 11.10 am: Professor Peter Newton
11.10 am – 11.50 am: National Transport Commission
11.50 am – 12.30 pm: National Growth Areas Alliance
1.20 pm – 1.50 pm: Associate Professor Hussein Dia
1.50 pm – 2.30 pm: University of Melbourne
2.30 pm – 3.10 pm: City of Melbourne
3.10: Close

The hearing 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.

ends