The Reform Council of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has savaged the planning of the country’s capital cities, publishing a review that urges governments to do better in planning future land use, infrastructure assets and economies of the country’s major cities.

 

Chairman of the COAG Reform Council, Paul McClintock AO, said governments need to get better at bringing together different aspects of their city planning.

 

“Just like you can't solve a Rubik’s cube one side at a time, you can't deal with land use, infrastructure and economic development separately,” Mr McClintock said.

 

The council was critical of all major cities with the exception of Adelaide.

 

“Our report found that while governments have shown strong commitment to improve their planning systems, none of their systems are entirely consistent with COAG’s agreed criteria to re-shape our capital cities,” Mr McClintock said.

 

The report found that all governments share a number of common issues and challenges and that no one single government has all the policy assets and expertise to deal with issues.

 

Mr McClintock said that COAG’s reforms and the review process demonstrate the value of collaboration by governments on planning capital cities.

 

“It is absolutely essential that all nine governments continue to work together to achieve COAG’s objective for our capital cities.”

 

“The value of improving planning in our cities is clear–around 75 per cent of Australia’s population live in our major cities and these cities generate nearly 80 per cent of GDP.”

 

“Governments have shown a strong commitment to improve their planning systems and we appreciate their active participation in our review,” Mr McClintock said.

 

The council has made a number of recommendations to COAG on the need to engage more with community, businesses and other stakeholders; focus more on implementing plans and getting results in cities; and consider ways to improve investment and innovation by the private sector.

 

The review can be found at http://www.coagreformcouncil.gov.au/reports/cities.cfm