The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Environment and Heritage is conducting an inquiry into "Sustainable Cities".

Submissions to the inquiry are being sought by Friday 31 October 2003. Roundtable forums will be held to collect further evidence after the submissions have been collected.

Click here for a copy of the Committee's discussion paper and Terms of Reference.

It's interesting that the members of the Committee are mostly from outer metropolitan electorates, rural or provincial electorates - with one exception, the Member for Dennison (Tas), the Honourable Duncan Kerr (a former Minister in the Keating Government). Most of the members are from Victoria and none are from the territories, or from SA or WA - the states whose capital cities are by far the most sprawled.

I'll wait and see what the "Sustainable Cities 2025" report delivers later this year once the submissions have been considered. It'll be a delightfully humerous read - considering how responsible the Federal Government is for urban planning issues (i.e. it's a state/local govt responsibility). It may create a benchmark for states to follow but most likely it'll be a big "bitch-slap" to the states.

Hip-hip hooray for the political (and partisan) mileage that can be made from state-federal disputes at the moment.

Planning 4th September, 2003 19:15:23   [#] 

Comments

The problem...
...with your analysis Aaron is that the Federal Government isn't pushing this agenda. Take this
media release from earlier in the year. It implies that it is the States that are pushing for Federal control (long-standing Labor policy?) or at least some direction.

There are plenty of planning issues that, right or wrong, the Federal government has a stake in (transport especially), so a strategy of some description wouldn't go astray.
Russell  7th September, 2003 01:47:25