22 Sep 2015 Australian Financial Review, Author: Tony Walker • Section: General News • Article type : News Item Audience : 57,243 • Page: 44 • Printed Size: 1032.00cm² • Market: National Country: Australia • ASR: AUD 18,045 • Words: 1630 • Item ID: 469156792

Copyright Agency licensed copy (www.copyright.com.au) Page 1 of 3 back Minister arrives with passion for smart cities Urban design has demonstrated knowledge, even a passion, for cities of the future in which technology would be married to the needs of citizens, writes Tony Walker.

moment when urbanisation, accompanied ies in a modern era as one of the more n a recent winter even- by sprawling metropolises like those of Mel- pressing responsibilities of government ing in Melbourne then bourne and , is posing enormous "The truth is that if we want our cities to communications and challenges to government - local, state and be healthier, more productive, more creat- broadband minister federal. ive; they need to be more like humans and Malcolm Turnbull took Ken Maher, president of less like cars," he had said in September part in a roundtable din- Sustainable Built Environment Council, 2014 to the ParraConnect forum. ner discussion about whose focus is designing better cities, The city of Parramatta lies at the physical O"smart cities" as part of the annual Austra- describes Turnbull's announcement as a centre of a sprawling and, increasingly, lian American Leadership Dialogue. "remarkably good initiative". traffic-clogged Sydney. Accompanied by wife, Lucy, a former Maher says the Commonwealth's govern- In that speech, Turnbull quoted the lord mayor of Sydney, Turnbull was anim- ment's big challenge will be how to better American urban economist, Ed Glaeser, ated by those discussions involving archi- integrate transport strategies for the big cit- who had said: "Those cities where techno- tects and urban planners and presided over ies in partnership with state governments, logy and electronic communications are by prominent Melbourne businessman and including funding. used most intensively are also those with philanthropist Peter Yates. He described as a "good signal" Turn- the most intense opportunities for physical "Malcolm's passion for smart cities and bull's apparent focus towards public trans- engagement, enabled by proximity and building public friendly cities is deep and port "being key to the cities of the future". density." committed and will be one of his great Robert Freestone, professor of planning Turnbull singled out New as an legacies. This is shared by Lucy," Yates says. in the built environment at the University of example. Among subjects discussed that evening NSW, says the country needs a "workable" Thus the "minister for broadband" con- was the "disconnect" between a low interest and "forward-looking" urban agenda to en- nected the sound bites between a digital age rate environment which should favour fin- and the needs of humans to interact with ancing urban renewal projects like trans- sure best use is made of limited resources. Freestone applauds Turnbull's observa- each other in their own communities. It was port and costs associated with opposition by an interesting speech, and one that reflected communities to such projects - so-called tion that "roads are not better than mass transit, or vice versa. Each has their place". the range of Turnbull's public policy nimbyism (not in my backyard). interests. "He's someone who understands urban- No one present at that dinner, including, as His attachment to public transport - it happened, The Australian Financial Review isation: he is an urbanist much more than his predecessors," Freestone says. Turnbull's selfies on trains, ferries and could have predicted that within a few weeks buses have become part of his political per- Turnbull would be Prime Minister, nor that Former prime minister branded himself the "infrastructure prime sona - more than likely serves a political he would be in a position to establish a cab- purpose. inet post carrying the title Minister for Cities minister". His aggressive championing of road building brought him into conflict with It helps to convey a public image not of and the Built Environment Point Piper man gliding around Sydney in a In the longer run, that cabinet appoint- Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews over Andrew's decision to de-fund the East-West chauffeured limousine, rather a commuter ment may well prove to be among the more road link in Melbourne. Turnbull would be on the 333 omnibus jolting its way down consequential moves of the Turnbull era in more likely to seek an accommodation with Oxford street one of the world's most urbanised coun- Andrews on issues like this. Cynicism aside, Turnbull's peregrina- tries. Eighty per cent of Australians live in In^his contributions to the roundtable tions appears to reflect a genuine interest in cities clinging to the eastern seaboard. held in one of the Victorian State Library's urban problems, even a liking for public "The cities generate most economic activ- stately reception rooms, Turnbull demon- transport ity in Australia, so we really need the Com- strated knowledge, even a passion, for cities monwealth to pay much more attention," of the future in which digital technology Turnbull said in Sunday's announcement of would be married to the everyday needs of his new ministry. citizens. The Prime Minister's focus on Australia's He echoed remarks he had made in a cities has been welcomed by the academic speech a year earlier to a forum in Parra- and urban planning community at a matta where he had laid out a vision for cit- 22 Sep 2015 Australian Financial Review, Australia Author: Tony Walker • Section: General News • Article type : News Item Audience : 57,243 • Page: 44 • Printed Size: 1032.00cm² • Market: National Country: Australia • ASR: AUD 18,045 • Words: 1630 • Item ID: 469156792

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Not sinceGough Whitlam has Australia had a prime minister who has seemed so ener- enormous challenges posed by demographic gised by issues of urban renewal, now over- shifts and the need for government to be laid in Turnbull's case by a digital mindful of quality of life issues, including the revolution. In Whitlam's day, the great provision of adequate public transport man's preoccupations had less to do with "Historically, the federal government has technological innovation than with how to had limited engagement with cities, and yet provide adequate basic services to dwellers that is where most Australian live," Turn- in the outer suburbs, including in his own bull said on Sunday. electorate of Werriwa in Sydney's West. "It is where the bulk of our economic Whitlam's focus then was a backlog of growth can be found. We often overlook the unsewered properties in Sydney, Mel- fact that liveable cities are economic assets." bourne and other cities. The Labor govern- This is the progressive Turnbull speaking ment committed $330 million, a huge sum to the chagrin, no doubt, of some of his col- in those days, to clearing the backlog. leagues. "No other western nation has cities in which the incidence of urban sanitation is so Tony Walker is the AFR's international editor. primitive... We are the most effluent nation He is a former political editor. Malcolm Turnbull's in what Liberals call the free world", he said. peregrinations No other prime minister before him had appears to reflect an such a focus on urban development; interest in urban although should be given problems, even a credit for ensuring that was liking for public adequately funded and properly planned transport. via the National Capital Development Com- PHOTO: ROBERT PEET mission in the post World War II period. The National Library and other public buildings are a result Whitlam's establishment of the Depart- ment of Urban and Regional Development under was one ofthe defining ini- tiatives of the Whitlam era, and involved urban renewal in the inner cities, and decentralisation projects like - Wodonga. Conservative governments have tended to be less committed to such projects that might smack of social engineering. Labor has traditionally been more interven- tionist, including the Better Cities initiative of the 1990s. The Labor governments of the and years formulated a national urban policy with design protocols. Under Rudd and Gillard, Labor increased funding for public housing, but leadership tensions dissipated the government's ener- gies. In the end, Labor's policies in the areas of infrastructure and urban renewal lacked focus and energy. Turnbull now has the opportunity to address, in partnership with the states, 22 Sep 2015 Australian Financial Review, Australia Author: Tony Walker • Section: General News • Article type : News Item Audience : 57,243 • Page: 44 • Printed Size: 1032.00cm² • Market: National Country: Australia • ASR: AUD 18,045 • Words: 1630 • Item ID: 469156792

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Long history of nation building New governments, new schemes, some successes

Billy Hughes GoughWhitlam Kevin Rudd Tony Abbott Prime Minister 1915 - 1923 Prime Minister 1972 -1975 Prime Minister 1983 -1991 Prime Minister 2007 - 2010 Prime Minister 2013 - 2015 TomUren The Hawke / Keating Julia Gillard Minister for Urban and Regional Prime Minister 2010-2013 Development, 1972 -1975 governments of the early 1980s launched the Building Better Cities program which provided money and planning coordination for rehabilitation of the inner cities of Sydney (Ultimo / Pyrmont), East Perth revival and rebuilding of Honeysuckle in Newcastle.

In 1987 the government The first major attempt at urban planned a "Multi-Function | Prime minister Tony Abbott revitalisation came when Prime Polis"-a city of 100,000 disbanded the Major Cities Unit Minister people. Originally intended and refused, earlier this year, to appointed Tom Uren as the for Queensland, later release the latest "State of ministerin charge of the new planned for South Australian Cities" report. Department of Urban and Australia. It was eventually canned in the face of September 20, new Liberal Regional Development (DURD). Prime Minister Malcolm Priorities included, sewerage hostility to the prooposed foreign investment base. Turnbull appoints a Minister for Not long after Federation a installation in outer city Darting Harbour, Sydney, 1980s Cities, Jamie Briggs and signals submission was put to Prime suburbs, establishment of state need for focus on "vibrant, land banks, encouragement of Minister by a liveable cities." group of emminent persons to local government planning. Prime Minister 1996 - 2007 establish a national bureau for Expansion of Albury Wadonga to The governments of Kevin planning and federal take pressure of Sydney and The Howard governments of the late 1990s and Rudd and Julia Gillard created Melbourne. early 2000s retreated from centralised the Major Cities Unit within development. ;s interventions in planning. Howard launched the the Federal government and and commissioned ar~~ i'.t.V I Green Street Program for model developments I across the country and a program for cutting ^ reports labelled Stati I red tap landmark report "National i Urban Planning, Our Cities, Our Future", in 2010. The post GFC economic stimulus program also directed money, successfully, to building housing for low income occupants.

Graphic: SOURCE: ROBERT FREESTONE, UN1VERSFTYOF NSW, FAIRFAX Chris Fowier