States need to be responsible for cities

30 August 2013

The announcement by the Prime Minister of a proposed Minister for Cities and an Outer Suburbs Growth Taskforce raises governance confusion about who manages growth in our cities, says the Urban Taskforce.

 

The State Government is the logical level of government in Australias three tier system of governance to be accountable for cities, says Urban Taskforce CEO, Chris Johnson.  It is the State Government that funds the public transport and the roads and is responsible for the planning system that has the most influence over where jobs are located.

 

The Federal Government clearly collects most of the taxes in Australia and delegates much of this back to the states who are more used to undertaking operational issues to do with cities.

 

It is important that the federal election gives attention to our urban areas and particularly to the growing suburban hinterlands to our major cities.  It is mainly, however, through allocating funds for major infrastructure projects that are designed and developed by the states, like WestConnex in Sydney, that commitments are needed.

 

Another major infrastructure project for Sydney is the Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek and clearly the Federal and State Governments need to work together to realise a major job driver like this.

 

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