Deliver globally competitive quality of life in Fast-growing Cities by growing economies and populations, enabled by place-centric infrastructure investment and reform.
- Community priorities
- Bounce back to rapid recovery
Key messages
Retaining and enhancing the quality of life of people in Fast-growing Cities is a complex and multifaceted task, with every level of government playing an essential role in their success.
Cities are a major contributor to Australia’s national gross domestic product and wealth, with financial, services and knowledge sectors benefiting from agglomeration and access to international markets.
The global status, growing size and diversity of these cities necessitate multi-dimensional governance and planning, requiring integration of place, movement, network integration and network interdependency and resilience.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the longstanding growth trajectory of Australia’s largest cities, pausing historical growth rates and shifting activity from the urban core to the suburbs and surrounding regions.
The pandemic provides an opportunity to rethink the role of cities, to embed the positive aspects and to reshape the planning of cities for the future.
What are the impacts?
Fit-for-purpose partnerships support collaborative governance by aligning investment priorities to deliver integrated places.
Governments can collaborate with industry to deliver place-based innovation districts to improve economic development and support future employment patterns.
Place-based development, particularly in outer suburban areas, will continue to support the integration of place and mobility, lifting the quality and accessibility of infrastructure and services.
Capitalising on active travel will support social and environmental outcomes by supporting the shift away from car dependency in larger cities such as Sydney and Melbourne.
How easy is it to implement?
There is capacity to deliver reform within government and industry. This can be achieved through existing governance arrangements and community engagement models, such as City Deals. However, new governance models will require cross-jurisdictional collaboration, with all three levels of government engaging with each other. This adds greater complexity to the delivery of this reform.
Despite requiring an increase in investment initially, access to a greater range of local services and equitable distribution of infrastructure should reduce the overall cost burden on taxpayers.
How certain are the outcomes?
There is a significant evidence base for the reform, with examples of collaborative governance such as City Deals providing confidence that the reform can be achieved. The growth and performance of Australian innovation districts and City Deals will also mature through continued implementation.
Acceptance of the reform is likely as governments continue to invest in place-based infrastructure. This provides opportunities to elevate place in the planning hierarchy.
The Australian Government plays a significant role in controlling the reform, with state and territory governments supporting the outcomes
| Affordability |
Housing affordability
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| Governance |
City vision
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| Quality |
UN Human Development Index
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Read more about this recommendation in 1.1 Rethinking our Fast-growing Cities in the 2021 Australian Infrastructure Plan.
Reform implementation pathway
This recommendation comprises of outcomes and activities, which form the reform's implementation pathway.
The implementation pathway is designed to guide change agents on the supporting activities necessary to achieve the overall reform.
For each outcome and activity, we propose change agents to act as:
- Proposed sponsor: facilitate, coordinate and champion the recommendation
- Proposed lead: deliver specific activities or lead related outcomes
- Support: share ownership, contributions or knowledge to enable the reform process.
Improve cooperation between all levels of government by jointly developing a clear vision for each Fast-growing City that underpins land use, infrastructure and planning strategies.
0-5 years
Build buy-in for each city’s vision through industry and community engagement.
0-5 years
Embed priority quality of life outcomes for each Fast-growing City in a refreshed Smart Cities Plan.
0-5 years
Benchmark performance of each city against the Australian Government’s policy priorities through the National Cities Performance Framework.
0-5 years
Harmonise local character and neighbourhood plans within each city’s vision to:
- account for local identity and assets
- guide timing and scope of current and proposed projects
- embed cultural considerations in planning, based on local demographics
- address disparities in infrastructure provision within and across Fast-growing Cities
- address community resilience, including behaviour changes associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
0-5 years
Incorporate diverse approaches and innovation in urban policy through collaboration between government, industry and academia.
0-5 years
Invigorate the Cities Reference Group to provide an interface between government, academia and industry on urban policy, including:
- updated terms of reference that focus on quality of life and support population and economic growth
- renewed membership to ensure broad representation from all levels of government, the infrastructure sector and industry representatives.
0-5 years
Maximise the impact of city-shaping infrastructure delivery and operations through collaborative place-based governance models.
5-10 years
Meet community needs by improving physical and digital connectivity through
place-based approaches to infrastructure planning and governance:
- Support the vision for a city by developing planning strategies focused on physical and digital connectivity that link places within cities, and their satellite areas.
- Connect assets to communities by defining a spectrum of appropriate governance models for places of different scale.
- Prioritise industry specialisations, innovation precincts and activity centres through infrastructure distribution decisions.
- Share best practice in planning and deliver place-based projects between state, territory and local governments.
0-5 years
Identify local priorities and support efficient place-based planning and delivery by using community-led governance groups.
0-5 years
Effectively deliver Australian Government-funded major infrastructure by developing a spectrum of place-based governance, financial and reporting models, including:
- managing the interface of federal assets and land holdings with neighbouring state, territory and local government infrastructure through asset or precinct specific models
- aligning city-shaping investment with supporting reforms and infrastructure provision through City Deal models
- driving targeted economic development of Fast-growing Cities by creating innovation districts and activity centres.
0-5 years
Ensure city-shaping infrastructure projects deliver value for money and amenity by applying place-based considerations to funding assessments.
5-10 years
Support a coordinated approach to developing Fast-growing Cities by requiring funding applications to demonstrate their strategic fit with the vision and priorities identified at the local, state and territory and federal level.
5-10 years
Ensure business case development incorporates a place-based approach when a project will create or cause material impacts on adjacent infrastructure.
0-5 years
Provide greater residential choice by planning and delivering high-quality medium-density residential areas alongside well-sequenced infrastructure investment.
5-10 years
Support amenity and infrastructure access for communities undergoing densification by developing local character plans to define expectations for the size and scale of infrastructure that will be provided.
0-5 years
Encourage a diversity of housing forms by revising planning codes to embrace a diversity of housing options, including explicitly supporting medium-density development.
0-5 years
Support local government decision-making by linking local character definitions to planning codes for medium-density forms.
0-5 years
Explicitly consider provision of affordable housing when planning medium density residential areas.
5-10 years
Effectively provide for infrastructure enhancement in brownfield communities undergoing step changes in densification by developing a transparent framework for population and activity levels, value-sharing funding mechanisms and associated infrastructure investment.
5-10 years