In his first major policy speech in Melbourne yesterday, the new Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population, Alan Tudge, set out the Government’s thinking about managing the growing pains for our major cities, including the problem of urban congestion.
While noting that congestion is a fact of life in growing cities, the Minister also highlighted the particular factors that have spurred its rise, including the step change in population growth since 2007 mostly driven by migration.
This growth has exceeded forecasts which in turn has widened the gap between infrastructure supply and demand.
The Minister outlined a four part plan for dealing with these challenges: more spending on intracity road and rail networks; addressing local congestion pinch points; easing the pressure on our largest cities by growing the regions through targeted migration initiatives; and developing a better population planning framework.
This is a pragmatic package which most people would support. The Minister emphasised the need to maintain the vibrancy and economic growth of our major cities while effectively dealing with their growing pains.
It is important to also recognise the population main game for Australia will still be helping our largest cities make the growth transition we know is in front of them. To deliver this requires a focus on good growth (not bad growth) and was the reason why we launched our Creating Great Australian Cities project earlier this year.
This research drew from international best practice to set out the building blocks for fast growing, successful cities. We were pleased to brief Minister Tudge on this research earlier this month.
The objective is high amenity, high liveability cities. After all, population growth doesn’t create bad planning – it’s bad planning that creates bad planning.