Cities in planning spotlight

But cutting congestion and travel time is about more than just trying to increase national productivity and GDP. It is also about giving people the chance to spend more time with their friends and families, helping the kids with homework or playing sport, rather than sitting in a traffic jam on congested roads. These things are not necessarily reflected in GDP numbers but they are of great importance to our quality of life.

In Australian cities, bottlenecks in our rail and port systems are also imposing huge financial costs on our exporters and on businesses in general.

It is estimated that road congestion by 2005 was contributing an avoidable cost of $9.4 billion. And if we fail to act, that cost will double in the next decade.

Governments across the nation are working to integrate long-term urban planning and infrastructure investment. Most have in place or are preparing metropolitan plans to address the challenges of growing populations, land supply, infrastructure rollout, housing and the management of growth corridors. However, while some capital city planning frameworks are good, implementing them has proved far more difficult.

As (former US) president (Dwight) Eisenhower said, the plan is nothing, the planning is everything. With Australia facing rapid growth in the decades ahead, the time has come for the Australian government to take a much greater national responsibility for improving the long-term planning of our major cities.