Building Up & Moving Out

Inquiry into the Australian Government's role in the development of cities: Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia September 2018

Australia is undergoing rapid change. Population growth, urbanisation, the ageing of the population and the transformation of the economy towards service and knowledge based industries are causing profound changes in the urban and regional landscape. The outcome of these changes will depend on how they are managed. In recent decades, there has been no plan for how to accommodate the growth in our cities and population. The scope and complexity of the challenges of growth require a reconfiguration of our understanding of our cities and their relationship with surrounding regions. Managing these challenges requires a national vision—a national plan of settlement. The national plan of settlement must set out a vision for our cities and regions for the next fifty years and beyond. It must take account of the fact that Australia’s cities and regions are not sustainable in their current form, and will become less sustainable as the population grows and ages. Achieving the required economic, social and environmental outcomes for the sustainability of our cities and regions will require a high level of integrated planning. This is not achievable without the coherent vision which comes from master planning both land use and facilitating infrastructure.