Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that Australia's state and territory capitals and other major cities are home to more than two in every three Australians;

(2) notes that the population of most Australian cities is projected to increase in the coming decades, creating additional challenges in managing planning, congestion and urban amenity;

(3) recognises that the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Better Cities was established in 2014 with the aim of working together to make Australia's capital and major cities more liveable, resilient and productive;

(4) congratulates the Prime Minister and the Government for recognising cities policies as a priority of government through the appointment of a Minister for Cities and the Built Environment; and

(5) encourages all Members to continue to give strong support to the wellbeing of Australian cities.

As the Prime Minister says, there has never been a more exciting time to be alive than today and there has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian. Introducing this motion, I echo his comments and add that there is also no better time to be living in an Australian city. I say this because never have cities had a greater policy focus than today.

Australia has always had a highly urbanised population by world standards; however, for several decades now this trend has been accelerating. Broadly speaking, we have seen a stagnation and decline in rural and remote populations and a growth in the population of regional centres and major cities. Australians are voting with their feet and moving to larger cities and towns, mirroring a trend seen in virtually all developed nations. At the same time, successive waves of new migrants to Australia have chosen to settle in our major cities to be closer to their communities and support services.

These population movements are gradually changing the character of our large cities. The average Australian city of the mid-20th century was a city of freestanding suburban houses with a backyard. For example, in Brisbane, Australia's third largest city, modern apartment blocks did not begin to appear until the 1960s. While owning a house and a yard has its obvious advantages, the low population density that comes with urban sprawl creates other problems. The per capita cost to government of providing basic services such as electricity, water and sewerage is higher. It becomes uneconomic for government to invest in rapid public transport, meaning communities are reliant on road transport. Commuting times become longer. In recent decades in Australia, our largest cities are beginning to reach the practical limits of urban sprawl. For instance, the greenfield outer suburbs of Sydney currently under development are up to 50 kilometres from the CBD. Faced with such constraints, more and more families are now choosing to trade away the space of outer suburbia for the convenience and amenity of higher density inner city living. But higher density living has its own challenges. While the per capita cost of providing utilities is lower, the lack of space makes town planning even more important. Public transport systems need to be efficient and affordable. Adequate space must be set aside for essential services such as schools and hospitals.

Australian cities are beginning to encounter these challenges. For example, in decades past the New South Wales government closed and sold off numerous inner urban school sites in Sydney due to low enrolment. Now they face an acute lack of space to provide public education to residents who have embraced high-density living on the Lower North Shore, the inner west and the Sydney CBD. The good news is that, whilst these may be new challenges for Australian cities, they have been successfully managed by urban planners in heavier populated cities overseas for many decades. Residents of global cities such as New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore enjoy some of the highest living standards in the world because their governments have had the foresight to invest in the infrastructure necessary to manage population density. There are lessons that Australia can learn from these urban success stories.

I spent a decade serving on the Brisbane City Council, dealing with issues of planning for the future needs of a growing city. During that time and much of my time since, I have been giving thought to how we can do things better to ensure that our cities are well equipped. Better planning requires a coordinated approach between local, state and Commonwealth governments. In recognition of this reality, last year I joined with the member for Scullin and the member for Melbourne to establish the Parliamentary Friends of Better Cities. Our group has been working together with key industry bodies on aspects of cities policy to make our capital and major cities more liveable, more resilient and more productive. Tomorrow we will be hosting a function to hear from the CEO of Infrastructure Australia, Mr Philip Davies, regarding his vision for better infrastructure delivery for Australia's capital and major cities.

I am even more pleased that the work we have done has been acknowledged by government and that a dedicated minister has now been appointed to manage cities policy. It is something for which I have been advocating for many years. I am confident that the new minister will build on the work of our group to meet the challenges and harness the opportunities that the future will bring.

If you want to move to a city, choose Brisbane. It is the best city in Australia—Australia's new world city.

I commend the motion to the House.

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