Property industry leaders have released a new report on the performance of Australia's capital cities and urged the Rudd Government to make cities a nation-building priority.
An alliance of leading business organisations - Built Environment Meets Parliament (BEMP) - met with political leaders and policy makers at a summit in Parliament House this week.
BEMP is an alliance of leading property industry groups that includes Consult Australia, the Australian Institute of Architects, the Green Building Council of Australia, the Planning Institute of Australia and the Property Council of Australia.
The call for action was prompted by an independent audit of Australia's capital city planning systems by KPMG for the BEMP alliance - Spotlight on Australia's Capital Cities: An Independent Audit of City Planning Systems.
The report measured each capital city against the performance criteria for effective city planning adopted by COAG (Council of Australian Governments) on 7 December 2009 and provided an overall score and ranking.
Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide topped the list, with scores of 69, 64 and 61 respectively. Perth (56) and Canberra (54) were next, followed by Sydney (47) and Darwin (44). Hobart brought up the tail with a score of 38.
The report also measured these planning frameworks against actual performance in the following areas: budget performance, population planning, housing affordability for key workers and traffic congestion, also providing an overall score against the criteria (out of 100) and ranking.
The report makes several recommendations, supported in-principle by the BEMP alliance, including releasing a national urban policy with performance targets, streamlining planning by adopting the Development Assessment Forum (DAF) model for local development assessment processes; and adopting priority activity plans for land release and infrastructure priorities.
Peter Verwer, CEO of the Property Council of Australia, said that delivering long-term plans to manage future growth is essential if Australia is to have more liveable, sustainable and productive cities. There can be no nation-building agenda without lifting the performance of our cities."
Romilly Madew, Chief Executive of the Green Building Council of Australia, added that if Australia is to truly have sustainable cities in the future, then dealing with climate change and energy efficiency in existing and future buildings must continue to be a focus of future capital city planning.
The full KPMG report and a summary is available at: www.bemp.com.au.