Towards an urban policy contract for Australia

"Planning… is the basis by which governments try to balance the two most important things that make a place worth living in - beauty and economic growth" the Economist April 2001.

The Property Council has an optimistic vision for the future of Australia's cities. It believes that both economic and social capital growth will drive our cities, however sustainability will only come from the development of public infrastructure, not just better 'hard' infrastructure in terms of pipes, wires, roads and bridges but in the development of the 'soft' infrastructure to foster higher quality in education (creativity and innovation), health, culture and art and design.

Not a one-size-fits-all or opportunistic political giveaway, but Infrastructure that will more than ever rely on the identification and implementation of coherent strategic urban policy for the nation, integrated across portfolios from national to state to regional and local government.

Cities, like nations and companies need to embrace the "triple bottom line" principles of environmental quality, social health and economic performance.

What will drive cities in the new economy?

The macro drivers of competitive cities are fundamental, indeed are traditional, albeit transformed into the 21st Century, they include:

• Demography
• Community values
• Capital attraction and utilisation
• Information technology
• Knowledge management
• Globalization
• Management and organizational structures (governance)
• Regulation and taxing

The nations' cities face growing infrastructure deficits that include:

• Transport infrastructure
• Telematics (high speed, low cost, deep penetration broadband connectivity)
• Multi purpose learning infrastructure and
• The changes to our sustainable assets

The "superchargers" of the new economy that will underpin the future of our cities will include:

• Communication
• IT
• Software development
• Health
• Hospitality
• Learning
• Biotechnology
• Financial services

Leadership and communication provides the impetus for cities to prosper. Co-operation between government, business and the community will be needed to take advantage of these "supercharger" opportunities.