Article: Lack of commitment leaves Perth open to population threat

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Lack of commitment leaves Perth open to population threat

Lack of commitment leaves Perth open to population threat
Courtney Trenwith
April 2, 2012

WA governments have been criticised for failing to commit to detailed timelines for infrastructure and other projects to deal with Perth's burgeoning population, with particular concern for a lack of planning to ensure social inclusion.

In a national review of capital cities, the Council of Australian Governments Reform Council praised WA for its strong planning governance structures, highlighting the Western Australian Planning Commission for its ability to coordinate and integrate.

Perth was considered a well planned city and the state government had good long-term goals set out in documents such as the Metropolitan Region Scheme, which ensured land and corridor reservation for infrastructure and growth, and Directions 2031, which had strong overall housing and land strategies.

"However, at this stage, the plans that set out the long-term vision for Perth do not contain clear measurable outcomes or the actions to pursue those goals that form the basis for a wider planning agenda beyond simply accommodating growth," the COAG report says.

Perth is the fastest growing city in the country and its population is expected to double to 3.4 million by 2056, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The COAG Reform Council found there was little action to provide for demographic change and social inclusion as Perth grows.

Professor Peter Newman, head of the Sustainability Policy Institute at Curtin University, said Australian capital cities were becoming increasingly divided, with a wealthy and well-serviced centre surrounded by endless suburbs that were overwhelmingly car dependent for access to work, services, recreation and education.

"The resulting traffic is becoming too hard so people stay in these suburbs with little to do, especially younger people, so we see rising violence and all the signs of boredom and anomie," he said.

"I call it the move to eco-enclaves surrounded by Mad Max suburbs.

"Strategic planning recognises this but seems powerless to do much."

Professor Newman said there needed to be more attention on infrastructure such as new rail networks and creating self-sufficient centres in the inner, middle and outer suburbs where there is affordable housing.

Such planning would significantly reduce car use and mirror that of Germany, which plans to halve car use by 2050.

Perth's lack of affordable housing also was highlighted by the COAG Reform Council.

While prices were out of control in cities across the country, the council found it was particularly bad in Perth, where only 19 per cent of homes are considered affordable compared to 40 per cent nationally.

The state government last year released its plan to provide 20,000 more affordable houses in Perth, but Professor Newman said there was no strategy to achieve the goal.

He said the plan to increase housing density and 50 per cent of new housing to come from redevelopment would require a light rail system, which would need federal funding.

However the state government, through the WA Planning Commission, does not intend to apply for Infrastructure Australia funding.

The expert review panel found WA was the only state not to work with Infrastructure Australia, which allocates federal infrastructure spending, placing the state's ability to attract funding at risk.

"So the planning goal is unlikely to be achieved," Professor Newman said.

Minister for Planning John Day said the report showed WA was well on the way to achieving the state's goals of a sustainable, productive and liveable capital city.

"Reform of Western Australia's planning system has been a major priority of the government since coming to office in 2008, and substantive progress has been made, including the Development Assessment Panels," he said.

"However, we recognise that further progress needs to be made and this remains a priority of government."

'It's a crucial time for our cities'

The review was commissioned in December 2009 after COAG recognised that Australia was "at a watershed point" for the strategic planning of capital cities.

COAG agreed that Australia's capital cities needed to be globally competitive, productive, sustainable, and well placed to meet future challenges and growth.

"Population growth, demographic change, increasing energy costs and the shift to a knowledge economy have changed the assumptions underpinning the shape and development of Australian cities," the report says.

"Strategic planning of capital cities must change accordingly, underlining the importance of COAG's agreement of criteria to 're-shape our cities'. In the panel's view, this must also include reconsideration of Australia's settlement pattern."

During the review, each capital city was assessed against nine criteria, including planning for future growth, urban design, intergovernmental coordination, accountabilities, evaluation and review cycles, and appropriate consultation and engagement.

Perth compared well against the other cities, with four areas - integration, nationally significant infrastructure, nationally significant policy issues and capital city networks - rated "largely consistent" with COAG criteria.

The expert review panel claims the approach to infrastructure planning and financing must change. Investment needs to be more strategic, to both overcome a lack of investment in recent decades and to

manage infrastructure provision over the medium and long-term.

COAG Reform Council chairman Paul McClintock said governments had shown strong commitment to improve their planning systems although none were entirely consistent with COAG's agreed criteria to re-shape capital cities.

No one government had all the policy levers and expertise to deal with the issues, emphasising the need for collaboration between governments.

"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," he said.‖

The council recommended that governments needed 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.

Professor Newman said the report lacked meat and the review had failed to dig into nationally significant issues such as infrastructure and climate change.

"This reflects on the expert review panel, who don't appear to have sought this evidence and don't appear to be concerned about its absence," he said.

"Its time for a new expert review panel to take seriously how Perth and other Australian cities can be globally competitive in their strategies to de-carbonise their cities. Until this is done the review of strategic planning systems is unfinished."

Greens sustainable cities and transport spokesperson, WA Senator Scott Ludlam, also was concerned by the restrictive terms of reference.

He wrote to the Reform Council in January requesting the terms of reference be expanded to include an examination of oil vulnerability, water supplies, food security, the protection of urban biodiversity and inclusion of green infrastructure.

"Criterion four collapsed ten 'nationally significant policy issues' into one section. How can those issues possibly be analysed in depth when crammed together as one single criterion in a list of nine criteria?" Mr Ludlam said.

Governments are expected to respond to the recommendations by the middle of the year.

Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/lack-of-commitment-leaves-perth-open-to-population-threat-20120401-1w6ah.html