tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/jamie-briggs-20924/articlesJamie Briggs – The Conversation2016-06-15T20:16:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/594682016-06-15T20:16:41Z2016-06-15T20:16:41ZState of the states: South Australia’s economy is the laggard of a nation in transition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125641/original/image-20160608-15041-1xwldq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Australia is proving to be a key point of interest for the electoral contest – not least because of the rise of Nick Xenophon's new party.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Julian Smith</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Ahead of polling day on July 2, our <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-the-states-2016">State of the states series</a> takes stock of the key issues, seats and policies affecting the vote in each of Australia’s states and territories.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Not for the first time, there is something incongruous about South Australian politics.</p>
<p>The 2013 federal election saw a change of government, yet only one seat changed hands in SA (<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/federal-election-2016/guide/hind/">Hindmarsh</a>). Skip forward three years and the Turnbull government looks set to be returned – albeit by a whisker. Yet SA is proving to be a key point of interest for the electoral contest, not least because of the X-factor – the Nick Xenophon effect.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-30/one-in-five-south-australian-to-vote-nick-xenophon-team/7458606">Polling suggests</a> Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) candidates in SA lower house seats could attract more than 20% of first preferences. This would bring a range of seats into play, and ultimately could be a wrecking ball against the major parties.</p>
<h2>Key seats</h2>
<p>On election night, the results in three key SA seats will be worth keeping an eye out for.</p>
<p>In Hindmarsh, Liberal incumbent Matt Williams has to hold off a challenge from Steve Georganas, who held the seat from 2004 to 2013. If Labor fancies any chance of returning to office, then this is a key target.</p>
<p>Unexpectedly, the normally safe Liberal seat of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/federal-election-2016/guide/mayo/">Mayo</a> is in play. NXT candidate Rebekha Sharkie is a former staffer to the incumbent MP – the SA Liberals’ falling star, Jamie Briggs. A large NXT vote could see Briggs lose his seat. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/federal-election-2016/guide/boot/">Boothby</a>, retiring Liberal MP Andrew Southcott is hoping to hand over the reins to conservative newspaper columnist Nicolle Flint. The NXT vote in Boothby is unclear; Labor candidate Mark Ward might sense a slim chance of stealing the seat, held on a 7.1% margin. </p>
<p>While the lower house tends to dominate attention, the Senate race looks fascinating. Simon Birmingham has <a href="http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/federal-election/federal-election-2016-cory-bernardi-loses-top-spot-on-liberal-senate-ticket/news-story/91d04cf024b502a61dc5d0c9ff286946">taken top spot</a> for the Liberals, pushing Cory Bernardi into second place – a shrewd move given Bernardi’s polarising politics. </p>
<p>Penny Wong will lead Labor’s charge to increase its numbers, although the reappearance of factional powerbroker Don Farrell <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-10/don-farrell-back-in-new-run-for-the-senate/7402990">may push</a> Anne McEwen out of the Senate. </p>
<p>The Greens will hope for an improved vote, although Sarah Hanson-Young hardly helped matters with a <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-sorry-what-senator-sarah-hansonyoung-stumbles-on-superannuation-policy-20160601-gp8r7z.html">car-crash interview on superannuation</a>. Robert Simms is a smart, new brand of Green, and will aim to <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/federal-election-2016/federal-election-2016-its-rob-simms-or-bob-day-for-senate/news-story/16f9606e58ca1e7004d59dd19db26a21">take the last Senate spot</a> from Family First’s Bob Day. </p>
<p>The NXT team is aiming for an incredible four Senate seats, but three looks <a href="https://theconversation.com/aided-by-the-new-senate-rules-nick-xenophon-should-have-a-happy-election-night-59900">more likely</a>. </p>
<h2>Key state issues</h2>
<p>At the last election, <a href="http://politicsir.cass.anu.edu.au/research/projects/electoral-surveys/australian-election-study/aes-2013">Australian Election Study</a> data showed the most important issue for Australian voters is the management of the economy, followed by health care and then education. There is no reason to think this has changed. </p>
<p>For the past few years, the SA economy has been the laggard of a wider economy in transition. Its <a href="http://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/LFR_SAFOUR/LFR_UnemploymentRate">unemployment rate</a> is the highest of any Australian state or territory.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has found some common cause with SA Premier Jay Weatherill in <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/06/03/pm-tries-nerd-goggles-adelaide">trying to shape</a> a “new economy” in the state. The end of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2015/nov/30/transition-mining-boom-is-bust-or-is-it">mining boom</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/political-fortunes-of-two-states-ride-on-the-end-of-the-car-industry-23068">death of the car industry</a> has placed added pressure on the defence industry to prop up the state’s fortunes.</p>
<p>A few local issues are playing out that might have an impact at the ballot box. The <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-22/new-royal-adelaide-hospital-delayed-until-may-sa-government/7266912">delays in opening</a> the new Royal Adelaide Hospital and the state government’s <a href="http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/survey-finds-majority-of-sa-surgeons-dont-support-transforming-health-reform-plan/news-story/48977ffb4c3e863a83be8be5b8364350">troubled Transforming Health agenda</a> has brought health care issues into focus.</p>
<p>Finally, there <a href="http://indaily.com.au/news/2016/02/17/adelaide-needs-higher-population-growth-infrastructure-australia/">remains a desire</a> for a fresh wave of infrastructure building. </p>
<h2>Policy proposals</h2>
<p>Lucky South Australians have been inundated during the campaign with regular visits from both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten. It’s a measure of how important the state has become that the Liberals have <a href="http://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/media/delivering-jobs-and-growth-for-south-australia">launched a plan for SA</a>. Both major parties are targeting the state on a range of issues.</p>
<p>Given the previous Abbott government’s bungled handling of the submarine deal, the Liberals are pushing hard to reassure South Australians that jobs will follow on from this, along with other defence announcements. All sides are claiming a victory on this issue – including the ubiquitous Xenophon.</p>
<p>A key flashpoint remains the troubled <a href="https://theconversation.com/arriums-whyalla-steelworks-another-threat-to-fragile-manufacturing-sector-57475">Arrium steelworks</a> in Whyalla. While the Liberals quickly ruled out direct assistance to Arrium, it <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-09/arrium-rescue-package-urgent-matter/7231742">fast-tracked a project</a> for steel for the Tarcoola rail upgrade to bring in more business. Labor <a href="http://www.whyallanewsonline.com.au/story/3849546/steel-plan-hope-for-whyalla/">outlined a six-point plan</a>, which includes providing assistance to local steel producers. </p>
<p>Elsewhere, the Liberals’ plan – inevitably linked to the “jobs-and-growth” slogan – targets jobs created through the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and infrastructure through the <a href="http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/nsc">North/South Corridor</a> and the <a href="https://renewalsa.sa.gov.au/projects/tonsley/">Tonsley redevelopment</a>. </p>
<p>Strikingly, federal Labor leader Bill Shorten has brought class back into politics, and is seeking appeal on grounds of fairness. Shorten is playing to Labor’s traditional strengths and hoping national commitments on “Gonski” levels of funding for education, reinvigorating TAFE, and strong support for Medicare will resonate in SA. </p>
<p>No parties, except the Greens, are going near the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-06/sa's-nuclear-royal-commission's-findings-due-next-week/7388976">“nuclear” issue</a> until the state government’s consultation process is over. </p>
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<p><em>Catch up on <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-the-states-2016">others in the series</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59468/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Manwaring does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The key battleground of South Australia has been inundated during the campaign with regular visits from both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten.Rob Manwaring, Lecturer, Politics and Public Policy, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/570402016-04-01T21:53:30Z2016-04-01T21:53:30ZCity Deals: nine reasons this imported model of urban development demands due diligence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116870/original/image-20160331-9712-1a04gd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">From Prime Minister David Cameron down, UK ministers have been keen to unveil ambitious 'City Deals', often before difficult policy and funding details have been resolved.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/number10gov/14384390539/in/photolist-nV6Lar-ocAc8X">flickr/Number 10</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The new assistant minister for cities and digital transformation, Angus Taylor, <a href="https://ministers.dpmc.gov.au/taylor/2016/welcome-speech-10th-green-cities-conference-hilton-hotel-sydney">spoke last week</a> of his enthusiasm for a “new vehicle” for creating partnerships between all three levels of government to drive the sustainable growth of our cities. This “tried and tested” vehicle is based on the UK government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/city-deals-and-growth-deals">City Deals model</a>, which has been <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/city-deals-wave-1">running in England since 2012</a>. </p>
<p>In a nutshell, this model encourages city councils or groupings of councils to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-northern-powerhouse-what-actually-is-it-50927">work together more effectively</a> in identifying local economic development opportunities. They then strike a deal with the central government to secure the funding necessary to realise these opportunities. </p>
<p>Part of the UK government’s so-called “<a href="http://www.localism-agenda.com/background/">localism agenda</a>”, this approach was designed to give more power and freedom to localities so they could do what they thought best to achieve growth in their area.</p>
<p>This approach has been heavily <a href="https://home.kpmg.com/au/en/home/insights/2015/12/urban-regional-growth.html">spruiked in Australia by KPMG</a> and by the Property Council of Australia to Taylor and his ministerial predecessor, Jamie Briggs. The Property Council’s Ken Morrison and KPMG’s Paul Low helpfully set out in their joint pamphlet <a href="http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/uk-city-deal-economic-growth-productivity.pdf">nine reasons</a> why this approach provides a model for Australian urban policy. </p>
<h2>How do the City Deals stack up?</h2>
<p>So let’s look at each of these reasons. How do they stand up to scrutiny? That includes the scrutiny of the UK National Audit Office (NAO), which in July 2015 published a <a href="https://www.nao.org.uk/report/devolving-responsibilities-to-cities-in-england-wave-1-city-deals/">progress review</a> of the first wave of English City Deals.</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>It’s a contract – the deal is a deal!</strong> In Australia the deals will be more complicated if the partners have to come from each of the three levels of government. And, as we know, federal and state governments have been known to tear up deals struck by their predecessors.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>The focus is on productivity and growth.</strong> The NAO review found that deal partners can struggle to agree on measures of growth and productivity. The Treasury and the Greater Manchester partnership took two years to <a href="http://www.manchester.gov.uk/blog/leadersblog/post/707/new-powers-to-greater-manchester">agree the terms</a> of their “earn back” deal.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>They encourage local leadership and good governance.</strong> While it is a sensible move for some local councils to come together in combined authorities, some of these now look remarkably similar to the English Metropolitan Country Councils <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Government_Act_1985">abolished in 1986</a> by a previous Conservative government. Creating a more efficient profile of local governments in Australia is a challenge many state and territory governments shy away from.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>They use smarter tools for making infrastructure investment decisions.</strong> There is certainly scope for making infrastructure decisions on the basis of more comprehensive and rigorous criteria. It is somewhat incongruous, though, to prosecute a localism agenda while at the same time insisting on assessment by a central unit located within the Treasury.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>They unlock innovative financing.</strong> The NAO review found that ministers often quickly published high-level ambitions, sometimes before departmental officials had agreed to specific funding packages. Haven’t we learnt to be cautious of policy rhetoric outstripping careful implementation planning?</p></li>
<li><p><strong>They help join up economic, social and sustainability goals.</strong> While the goals might be joined up – an excellent ambition – it has proved extremely difficult to set up evaluation frameworks that can demonstrate with any rigour what the long-term impacts are and what would have happened without the deals.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>They promote powerful political leadership.</strong> Directly elected mayors are already common in some parts of Australia and local councils are typically much smaller than in the UK. Whether a formal partnership of local councils in Australia would find it easy to allow one mayor to be first among equals is a moot point.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>They promote financial literacy skills at the local level.</strong> City Deals did not provide any extra funding to build local management capacity. Local partners were expected to pool their resources to achieve this. The NAO concluded that this approach was not sustainable in the context of continuing reductions in central funding to local government.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>They rely less on inefficient taxes.</strong> Without specifying what these inefficient taxes might be, we can safely assume this approach won’t involve any reform of negative gearing or capital gains tax on property holdings.</p></li>
</ol>
<h2>New titles, same old song</h2>
<p>City Deals have been sold in the UK as a significantly new approach to urban policy, but they look remarkably similar to measures that have been promoted over the last 40 years. </p>
<p>Every UK urban policy initiative introduced since the mid-1970s has spoken of the importance of partnerships, cross-departmental co-ordination, multi-sectoral intervention and local leadership. While the titles of these initiatives may have changed, the song has remained the same.</p>
<p>And here lies the biggest challenge. We know that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the problems are inter-related and the all levels of government need to work productively together and with other sectors;</p></li>
<li><p>departmental silos within government get in the way of strategic planning; and</p></li>
<li><p>scarce public resources need to be invested wisely. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>And we know that to overcome these problems we need a much greater degree of policy stability and long-term, bipartisan commitment. What we do not need is to jump on yet another urban policy bandwagon from overseas – one that is already being tinkered with in its country of origin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57040/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Burton receives funding from the City of Gold Coast and has in the past received funding from the UK government for research on urban policy. He is a founding member of Regional Development Australia, Gold Coast.</span></em></p>The new cities minister apparently shares the Property Council and KPMG’s enthusiasm for the UK ‘City Deals’ model, but he should look more closely at this ‘tried and tested’ model before adopting it.Paul Burton, Professor of Urban Management and Planning & Director, Urban Research Program, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/557682016-03-14T19:13:24Z2016-03-14T19:13:24ZMemo to our latest cities minister: here’s what needs to be done<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114383/original/image-20160309-22132-14nsnos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The new assistant minister for cities, Angus Taylor, has expressed a 'deep belief that consultation and proper public debate gets to wise outcomes'.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/crawfordforum/21099615426/in/photolist-hWYgAw-cjcCHy-qbtnYq-cjcoew-xeW7BM-y9v3yS-cQnUV3-cQnWhA-tNpxjR-cQom2W-Ba3NqC-xeNbu3">flickr/Crawford Forum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Malcolm Turnbull became prime minister last September and announced there was to be a minister for cities and the built environment, many were pleasantly surprised. The <a href="http://www.liberal.org.au/latest-news/2013/09/05/final-update-federal-coalition-election-policy-commitments">Coalition’s 2013 election platform</a> made the briefest mention of cities and proposed only a program of investment in urban roads and national highways to ease congestion. It seemed then that the traditional antipathy towards urban policy from the conservative side of politics was set to remain.</p>
<p>So, Turnbull’s innovation agenda, which included this new focus on cities, was <a href="https://theconversation.com/hopes-of-a-new-urban-age-survive-ministers-fall-52975">welcomed in many quarters</a>. Perhaps now we would see concerted policy attention given to the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/3218.0Main%20Features152013-14?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=3218.0&issue=2013-14&num=&view=">places where most of us live</a>, work, study and play. </p>
<p>Over the next few months, the new cities minister, Jamie Briggs, undertook extensive consultation and discussion around Australia. But this process had not produced a clear statement of government policy by the time he was <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-29/mal-brough-and-jamie-briggs-stand-down-from-frontbench/7058266">obliged to offer his resignation</a>, just after Christmas. </p>
<p>One of Briggs’ last major speeches was to the <a href="http://soacconference.com.au/">State of Australian Cities conference</a> in December. He described his ambition for greater co-ordination among federal agencies and between levels of government and greater collaboration between government, the private sector and urban researchers. </p>
<p>However, apart from Briggs’ passing references to trying to capture some of the value uplift associated with public investment in infrastructure, we were none the wiser about the substance of an embryonic national urban policy. </p>
<h2>A new broom?</h2>
<p>Briggs’ successor is <a href="https://ministers.dpmc.gov.au/taylor">Angus Taylor</a>, who enjoys the slightly different title of <a href="https://theconversation.com/turnbull-makes-necessity-the-mother-of-opportunity-54702">assistant minister for cities and digital transformation</a>, sitting within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet rather than in Greg Hunt’s Environment Department. </p>
<p>With Taylor having been in the job for less than a month, we have not yet heard much detail of his views on cities and urban policy. But <a href="https://ministers.dpmc.gov.au/taylor/2016/abc-radio-am-programme-interview-michael-brissenden">he has said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m the assistant minister for cities, not the assistant minister for inner cities, or even capital cities …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And to fulfil his “deep belief that consultation and proper public debate gets to wise outcomes”, what advice might we offer to the new assistant minister? Here are some suggestions to be going on with.</p>
<h2>Dear assistant minister,</h2>
<p>Congratulations on your appointment. Many who recognise the importance of cities to how well we live are pleased that the prime minister continues to show a commitment to building policy in this field. We trust that you will be able to lead this process and overcome <a href="https://theconversation.com/without-a-national-cities-policy-who-joins-all-the-planning-dots-24634">the policy neglect</a> that has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-policy-could-the-federal-government-finally-get-cities-47858">evident for some time</a>.</p>
<p>You have rightly pointed out that Australian cities are many and varied and although we do not have a clear definition of what constitutes a city, we should not be preoccupied with what happens within the inner areas of some of our capital cities. </p>
<p>No doubt you will be aware that previous federal urban policy initiatives have tended to focus on what happens within our cities and this is important. But too often it has been at the expense of any serious attention to the overall pattern of settlements across the country and to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul_Burton3/contributions">relations between cities</a>. </p>
<p>Now would be a good time to rectify this and develop a truly national policy on settlements and cities.</p>
<p>We expect that Australia’s population <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/lookup/3222.0Media%20Release12012%20(base)%20to%202101">will double by 2075</a> if current assumptions about fertility, life expectancy and migration hold. While the validity of these assumptions will always provoke public debate, it is unlikely that the population will not continue to grow. </p>
<p>It is incumbent on the federal government to think about where this growing (and ageing) population will live and work; you have a critical role in stimulating this thinking. </p>
<p>You might take the view that the market is best placed to anticipate where people want to live and provide accordingly. But those decisions have consequences, especially for the provision of infrastructure such as roads, public transport, schools and hospitals. </p>
<p>And you have already indicated that the distribution of economic activity – and <a href="https://ministers.dpmc.gov.au/taylor/2016/cities-agenda-focus-access-local-jobs-affordable-housing-and-liveability">especially access to local jobs</a> – is one of the biggest challenges facing Australia’s cities, large and small.</p>
<h2>A national spatial plan is needed</h2>
<p>Local councils and state and territory governments already prepare spatial plans for their areas. These aim to anticipate where growth might occur and what its wider impacts might be. These plans and strategies enjoy varied success, but few would argue that we should abandon spatial planning. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114385/original/image-20160309-22114-xb9ufq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114385/original/image-20160309-22114-xb9ufq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114385/original/image-20160309-22114-xb9ufq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114385/original/image-20160309-22114-xb9ufq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114385/original/image-20160309-22114-xb9ufq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114385/original/image-20160309-22114-xb9ufq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114385/original/image-20160309-22114-xb9ufq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114385/original/image-20160309-22114-xb9ufq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If the government can produce a development plan for northern Australia, there’s no reason not to produce a plan for the whole country.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://industry.gov.au/ONA/WhitePaper/index.html">Commonwealth Office of Northern Australia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are no obvious reasons, therefore, why the federal government should not also develop a spatially-aware national policy for settlements. This does not mean that you, minister, should be responsible for approving state or local government plans, or for signing off on development approvals – unless they were of national significance. But it might mean that you are able to build a national perspective within government on where growth should be encouraged or discouraged and where government investment in critical infrastructure might be targeted.</p>
<p>The government already has a <a href="http://industry.gov.au/ONA/WhitePaper/index.html">plan for northern Australia</a>. You have the opportunity to help it develop a settlement and investment plan for all of Australia.</p>
<p>This will not be an easy task. Many believe the federal government has no role to play in the planning and governance of our cities. This overlooks the fact that your colleagues in government make decisions every day that have spatial implications and urban impacts. </p>
<p>The new policy commitment to cities that you embody provides an important opportunity to make these processes more explicit and to plan accordingly. I wish you all the very best in this difficult task.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55768/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Burton was the organising committee chair of the State of Australian Cities national conference held in the Gold Coast in December 2015.</span></em></p>Effective development planning must anticipate where growth might occur and its wider impacts. So, if the federal government is serious about cities policy, it needs a proper settlements plan.Paul Burton, Professor of Urban Management and Planning & Director, Urban Research Program, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/529752016-01-13T19:10:49Z2016-01-13T19:10:49ZHopes of a new urban age survive minister’s fall<p>The <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/minister-jamie-briggs-quits-malcolm-turnbulls-government-after-incident-abroad-20151229-glw7md.html">resignation</a> of Australia’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-policy-could-the-federal-government-finally-get-cities-47858">first</a> minister for cities and the built environment after just 99 days is a setback for federal leadership in these areas. Yet enough momentum and goodwill have been generated to keep the flag flying. The greatest hope is that an urban consciousness in national public policy will be lodged permanently.</p>
<p>Even before state planning ministers assemble within months to hammer out the ground rules for federal engagement, the mutual understanding will be that the states are Australia’s primary urban governments.</p>
<p>In August 1945, a conference of Commonwealth and state ministers in Canberra confirmed that arrangement. The states rejected a generous proposal for a central planning bureau to provide advice, training and information resources plus cover half the costs of employing technical experts to assist local authorities.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Ben Chifley’s <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=3cknaR91bXUC&pg=PA221&lpg=PA221&dq=Chifley+Coombs+%E2%80%9Cthe+matter+ought+to+be+left+to+the+states%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=EME-7APVVJ&sig=Yojh5l-fwo8Ie2q6dbHTzR-80SI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMooib-KLKAhUhY6YKHeAjCHIQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=Chifley%20Coombs%20%E2%80%9Cthe%20matter%20ought%20to%20be%20left%20to%20the%20states%E2%80%9D&f=false">summation</a> sealed the fate of the bold reconstruction initiative hatched by Nugget Coombs:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the matter ought to be left to the states.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>How cities became ‘orphans of public policy’</h2>
<p>Regardless, the federal government has retained a periodic interest in cities, with mixed outcomes. Historically, most initiatives have been linked to Labor. </p>
<p>Gough Whitlam’s Department of Urban and Regional Development (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Urban_and_Regional_Development">DURD</a>, 1972-75) injected valuable locational and equity perspectives into policy. However, a big-spending command, control and co-ordinate mission proved problematic.</p>
<p>Bob Hawke delivered <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/1011/CityPlanning#_Toc280273573">AMCORD</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=smCRlqAAGEgC&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=%22Green+Street%22+Hawke+government&source=bl&ots=4ManO0USEk&sig=faYZAHDW2COX77oV5aibEDYxnjk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjg2Nej96LKAhVELqYKHeGhBYcQ6AEINTAE#v=onepage&q=%22Green%20Street%22%20Hawke%20government&f=false">Green Street</a> as best-practice guidelines for residential development. This helped change the culture of the development industry. But the Hawke government’s main legacy, driven by Deputy Prime Minister Brian Howe, was <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=UhMVMEQv6okC&pg=PA83&dq=%E2%80%98Building+Better+Cities%E2%80%99+1991-96&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwil5ZqK-aLKAhVGqqYKHVWUDT0Q6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%98Building%20Better%20Cities%E2%80%99%201991-96&f=false">Building Better Cities</a>, centred on strategic housing, environmental and infrastructure projects.</p>
<p>Paul Keating gave us the <a href="https://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/release/transcript-9020">Urban Design Task Force</a> (1994) and the Australian Urban and Regional Development Review (1995) of federal programs for infrastructure, planning and transport.</p>
<p>By the time of the Rudd-Gillard governments, an actual <a href="http://infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/policy-publications/publications/Our-Cities-Our-Future-2011.aspx">National Urban Policy</a> emerged to guide public intervention and private investment. Its quartet of themes remain widely accepted: productivity, sustainability, liveability and governance.</p>
<p>The Coalition’s contributions have been more muted. </p>
<p>The enduring love affair was between Robert Menzies and Canberra. The capital received extraordinary largesse to become an exemplar of modernist architecture, design and planning. Most everywhere else was ignored. </p>
<p>Late in his term, William McMahon <a href="https://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/release/transcript-2691">instituted</a> a National Urban and Regional Development Authority, which lingered as a commission for new cities alongside DURD. </p>
<p>The Fraser government wound down Labor’s perceived excesses but still found a rationale for inquiries into the Commonwealth and the urban environment (1978) and a <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/13479689?q&versionId=45288253">pioneering study</a> on urban environmental indicators (1983). John Howard offered various charters and best practice initiatives, notably the <a href="http://alga.asn.au/?ID=157">Development Assessment Forum</a> (1998).</p>
<p>Cities have been called “<a href="http://www.afr.com/news/politics/national/cities--those-orphans-of-public-policy--need-a-voice-20141016-11bx10">orphans of public policy</a>”, so the decisive and acclaimed entry of the Turnbull government into the fray is remarkable. Malcolm Turnbull has the credibility, nous and drive to supplant Tony Abbott as the first infrastructure prime minister. In a sense, Abbott ignored cities – except to champion motorways – at his peril.</p>
<h2>Turnbull invigorates urban agenda</h2>
<p>Turnbull’s transformative move has been to declare officially what has been long known: cities are “<a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/10/11/turnbull-i-want-be-infrastructure-prime-minister">crucibles</a>” of innovation and enterprise.</p>
<p>Productive cities are smart, innovative, prosperous and great places to live. Less productive cities are accordingly less liveable, sustainable and connected.</p>
<p>While a new cities minister will lay claim to one ear of Turnbull, wife Lucy will command the other. A former lord mayor and “city expert” adviser to the COAG Reform Council, she chairs both the <a href="http://www.sydney.org.au/">Committee for Sydney</a> and the NSW government’s new <a href="http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/Plans-for-Your-Area/Sydney/A-Plan-for-Growing-Sydney/Greater-Sydney-Commission/">Greater Sydney Commission</a>.</p>
<p>The problems of Australian cities are well documented: density (the drawbacks of low joined by the challenges of high), transport (needing greater mass transit connectivity and walkability while reducing dependence on cars), housing (affordability and variety), inequality (divided by income, health and mobility), the spatial mismatch between jobs and homes, fractured metropolitan governance, open space, environment, heritage, design. </p>
<p>Australia’s “broken cities”, to quote the Grattan Institute report <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/city-limits-why-australias-cities-are-broken-and-how-we-can-fix-them/">City Limits</a>, are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… caught between the three tiers of Australian government, hardly registering on the agenda of many politicians.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What to do next?</h2>
<p>The solutions are wickedly challenging. In December, the then-minister, Jamie Briggs, distilled the state of play in his <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/minister/briggs/2015/speeches/sp20151211.html">keynote address</a> to the <a href="http://soacconference.com.au/">State of Australian Cities conference</a>. The Commonwealth was not set to take over from the states, create new bureaucracies or become a “planning approver”. Rather, there would be better co-ordination between federal agencies and across all tiers of government. </p>
<p>Briggs flagged collaboration with the private sector, researchers, and the wider community. He spoke of the need to secure “better outcomes” and “measure our performance”. The gaze was on the long run and locking in agreed planning and co-ordination of projects.</p>
<p>Smarter, more flexible and adaptable financial arrangements will come into play. The buzzwords “value uplift” and “value capture” pinpointed the need to extend federal intervention beyond cash handouts. This is code for differential tax increment financing to tap into revenues generated by rising property prices from infrastructure improvements. </p>
<p>Labor’s National Urban Policy framework will need to be revisited. The way forward is through intergovernmental agreements that link specified outcomes to robust and streamlined planning systems. These will need to connect up issues of housing, employment, environment and infrastructure.</p>
<p>This agenda has been taking shape for some time. Bellwethers include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Productivity Commission inquiries into <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/regulation-benchmarking-planning">planning, zoning and development assessments</a> (2011) and <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/infrastructure">public infrastructure</a> (2014), and the <a href="http://competitionpolicyreview.gov.au/">Harper review</a> of competition policy (2015), all highlighting the need to reform land-use planning; </p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.consultaustralia.com.au/docs/default-source/infrastructure/Tomorrow_s_Cities_Today_-_Short_Form.pdf?sfvrsn=0">Tomorrow’s Cities Today</a> (2014) by Consult Australia; </p></li>
<li><p>the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC) report, <a href="http://www.asbec.asn.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/150707-ASBEC-Media-Release-Investing-in-Cities-Essential-for-Productivity.pdf">Investing in Cities</a> (2015), aimed at “maximising the benefits created by the world’s most urbanised nation”; and</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.linkplace.com.au/#!coag/cfa9">COAG’s review</a> of metropolitan planning strategies to ensure matching and orderly infrastructure provision (2011).</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Ideas and inspirations abound</h2>
<p>Several seers lit the ideological torches for the new infrastructural urbanism. Ed Glaeser’s <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/18111592">Triumph of the City</a> is a paean to proximity, density and light-handed regulation. In <a href="http://www.creativeclass.com/richard_florida/books/the_rise_of_the_creative_class">The Rise of the Creative Class</a>, Richard Florida broadcast the competitive advantage of attracting human capital. Enrico Moretti’s <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/enrico-moretti-geography-jobs">The New Geography of Jobs</a> (2012) demonstrated the multiplier effects of urban “brain hubs”.</p>
<p>In the UK, the Cameron government’s <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/new-deal-for-cities-will-mean-a-great-deal-for-the-nation/news-story/47ae016c79180f329b993bcaf479a2bf">City Deals</a> policy highlights an attractive model of bespoke multi-target programs for competing cities. It is aimed squarely at economic growth underpinned by enhanced tax revenue from development.</p>
<p>While the cities component of the new portfolio is crystallising publicly, what of the built environment? In exploring a model that works for the Coalition another exemplar is the UK’s <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110118095356/http:/www.cabe.org.uk/">Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment</a> (1999-2011). Although emasculated in a purge of quangos, it was widely respected as an adviser and advocate for quality design and valuation of the public realm. </p>
<p>Run leanly and through a similar mix of design reviews, publications, research forums and an adviser network, an Australian adaptation could assume a timely leadership position. It would be a vehicle for many voices to be heard, not just the property and development sector. Turnbull tacitly recognised the value of this when he <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/what-will-our-politicians-be-reading-and-watching-over-the-summer-break-20151211-gll4j1.html">announced</a> that his summer reading included Marcus Westbury’s primer for DIY urbanism, <a href="http://www.creatingcities.net/">Creating Cities</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X32TAPulJkM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Marcus Westbury talks about the creative renewal of his home city of Newcastle.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Quite a few federal activities might be connected under this umbrella. These include <a href="https://infrastructure.gov.au/infrastructure/pab/soac/index.aspx">State of Australian Cities</a> reporting; the National Australian Built Environment Ratings System (<a href="http://www.nabers.gov.au/public/WebPages/Home.aspx">NABERS</a>); various environmental policies including management of national and Commonwealth heritage lists; leased federal airports, which have become development hotspots; the <a href="https://www.nationalcapital.gov.au/">National Capital Authority</a>; the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (<a href="http://www.ahuri.edu.au/">AHURI</a>) and the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (<a href="http://aurin.org.au/">AURIN</a>). </p>
<p>Given the importance of evidence-driven policy, it is unfortunate that urban-related research is under-supported by the Australian Research Council. It barely registers in its <a href="http://www.arc.gov.au/science-research-priorities">research priorities</a>.</p>
<p>Urban policy is complex because it potentially links up and intrudes into many arenas of government. The cities ministry and the new interdepartmental <a href="http://www.governmentnews.com.au/2015/10/new-cities-and-built-environment-taskforce/">taskforce</a> sit within the Environment Department overseen by Greg Hunt. As shadow minister for cities, Anthony Albanese has <a href="http://anthonyalbanese.com.au/speech-to-the-the-rail-tram-and-bus-union-national-conference-the-politics-of-building-better-cities">warned</a> of “convoluted administrative arrangements”, with five ministers sharing responsibilities for cities and infrastructure policy.</p>
<p>Former professor of public administration Martin Painter <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8500.1979.tb00877.x/abstract;jsessionid=D5866569596B991CEF8488B509417D9F.f01t03?userIsAuthenticated=false&deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=">identified</a> the “impossibility of urban policy” because of insoluble administrative problems flowing from taking too comprehensive a position. His advice was “the simpler the better”.</p>
<p>Briggs’ successor will likely continue down the same path with a discussion paper, a national forum with the prime minister speaking, and that meeting of planning ministers to talk through approaches and decisions. There are now huge expectations that a new urban age has dawned in Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52975/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Freestone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cities have been called “orphans of public policy”, so Malcolm Turnbull’s decisive entry into the fray is remarkable. He has the credibility, nous and drive to deliver a national urban policy agenda.Robert Freestone, Professor of Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/528042016-01-06T04:38:52Z2016-01-06T04:38:52ZWitches both mad and bad: a loaded word with an ugly history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107327/original/image-20160105-28969-squugp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why do some people reach for the word "witch" to describe the women around them?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Heks op de bezem, Kees Groeneveld, 1959.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the weekend, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jan/04/peter-dutton-apologises-for-calling-journalist-a-mad-witch-in-text-message">inadvertently sent a text message</a> calling journalist Samantha Maiden a “mad f—ing witch” to Maiden herself, rather than his intended recipient, fellow MP Jamie Briggs.</p>
<p>After the subsequent media furore, a Facebook community called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MadFckingWitches/">“Mad F—ing Witches”</a> has attracted thousands of likes. On Twitter, women have been posting photographs with the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23PutYourBroomOut">#putyourbroomout</a>.</p>
<p>Deputy Nationals Leader Barnaby Joyce has <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/barnaby-joyce-i-hope-we-dont-become-too-politically-correct-after-briggs-dutton-affairs-20160105-glzoyi.html#ixzz3wMcpH5wY">expressed concern</a> that politics might become too “sterile” if MP comments are subject to such intense scrutiny. He argues that this kind of language is part of the political landscape:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If I got upset about every time I have been abused on Twitter or in the newspaper or in text messages, I would be a case for an asylum.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But Dutton’s text trades on enduring stereotypes about women’s mental instability and irrationality. It is embedded in the history of labelling women who pose any perceived threat to men’s power as unhinged or evil.</p>
<h2>Hysterical history</h2>
<p>Being “crazy” is an insult that can be levelled at men or women, yet there are distinct cultural attempts to categorise “madness” as a uniquely feminine trait.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107330/original/image-20160105-28997-rjunnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107330/original/image-20160105-28997-rjunnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107330/original/image-20160105-28997-rjunnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107330/original/image-20160105-28997-rjunnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107330/original/image-20160105-28997-rjunnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107330/original/image-20160105-28997-rjunnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107330/original/image-20160105-28997-rjunnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107330/original/image-20160105-28997-rjunnq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Witch of Endor, painted by Adam Elsheimer, engraved by John Kay, 1805.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">via Wikimedia Commons.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Women are frequently described as “hysterical” when engaging in passionate debate or responding to a distressing situation. The word is used far less often for men and there is good reason for that imbalance. The term “hysteria” derives from the word “hystera”, relating to the uterus, or “<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=weNQQgFmNGUC&pg=PA209&lpg=PA209&dq=hysteria+%22belonging+to+the+womb%22&source=bl&ots=ZesHoDPFYQ&sig=-6pZcNThQb_4vYLiLlXAa7TrRHc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwje1OjM8pLKAhUIG6YKHU_pD0AQ6AEIMjAE#v=onepage&q=hysteria%20%22belongi">belonging to the womb</a>”.</p>
<p>For several thousand years, the very condition of having a womb and giving birth to children or, conversely, failing to bear children or have sex, were thought to cause a disease unique to women. An entirely imagined disorder lead to women being institutionalised, treated with hysterectomies, or, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Technology_of_Orgasm.html?id=iNKw0XuaSxoC&redir_esc=y">as Rachel P. Maines</a> details, subject to “pelvic massage” by a doctor until they experienced orgasm.</p>
<p>When women are flippantly labelled as “mad”, it is not a gender neutral sleight. The very state of being a woman has been long associated with mental illness.
Similarly, women are also more commonly linked with supernatural evil. As <a href="http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/ewf1leishmandidomenico1.pdf">June Leishman and Catherine DiDomenico</a> propose, groups who hold a weak position in society are “simultaneously feared”. Cultures that socially disempower women are more likely to fear them as “evil” and accuse them “of employing witchcraft”.</p>
<p>During the <a href="http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html">Salem witchcraft trials</a> and witch hunts that took place over centuries in Early Modern Europe, women were burned, hanged, and drowned on suspicion of their ability to cause illness or death through magic. These murders show the baseless fear of women wielding power that transcended that of the men who controlled the societies in which they lived.</p>
<h2>Bewitching women</h2>
<p>Throughout Western history, women have typically been denied the right to own property, become literate or educated, pursue careers, participate in politics, or make decisions independently of their husbands. Within this context of men’s control over women, the one limited power that women possessed was their ability to be sexually attractive to men. It is therefore no surprise that beauty is linked with witchcraft in language.</p>
<p>A number of terms that relate to women’s ability to appear desirable have magical connotations. Most obviously, a woman can be “bewitching” in her power to lure men. In addition, the word “<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=evcnAQAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=occult">glamour</a>”, which we associate with stylish women, originally referred to the occult and a spell that made the viewer see an object or person differently to its actual appearance.</p>
<p>Cultural stereotypes of witches as old, ugly, and childless situate the witch as the antithesis of everything a desirable woman should be. Nevertheless <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/reader?id=RGv8dLTWDdIC&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb_hover&pg=GBS.PA3.w.1.1.147">Diana Purkiss</a> has shown that the Early Modern witch was not only a patriarchal creation. She explains that women, in some ways like those who are now embracing the “Mad F—king Witches” title, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>invested heavily in the figure as a fantasy which allowed them to express and manage otherwise unspeakable fears and desires.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Similar to how the gay and lesbian community has “reclaimed” the once pejorative term “queer”, women in this case have begun to show how they can also take back the word “witch” and transform the qualities it connotes into positive traits.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"683609061712003073"}"></div></p>
<p>Samantha Maiden found the humour in the insult, adding “Totally mad witch” to her Twitter biography, and temporarily changing her profile page to include an image from the 1960s TV series Bewitched. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"683609639729016832"}"></div></p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"683767981957099520"}"></div></p>
<p>Other women have also sent up Dutton’s text, sharing photos of household brooms on their doorsteps as well as images of witches in popular culture. It even won international attention, with a tweet from the account of American TV superhero Jessica Jones.</p>
<p>While Maiden and others have embraced the term “mad witch”, there’s little doubt that it was intended as an insult. </p>
<p>Labelling a woman a “mad witch” brings with it unmistakable discomfort and hatred. It is a name that was applied to former Prime Minister Julia Gillard on the infamous <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/notorious-julia-gillard-ditch-the-witch-sign-up-for-sale-20150210-13al4r.html">“Ditch the witch” placard</a>, providing a clear instance of how the word continues to be evoked for strong women who do not embrace traditional feminine roles in the home.</p>
<p>Dutton’s errant text is a further example of how antiquated beliefs about women are embedded in our language.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52804/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Smith has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Why did Peter Dutton choose ‘witch’ when describing Samantha Maiden? The word has a long history of misogyny – particularly towards outspoken or powerful women.Michelle Smith, Research fellow in English Literature, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/526882016-01-04T23:20:49Z2016-01-04T23:20:49ZWhat it feels like for a girl: Dutton and Briggs remind us of politics’ endemic sexism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107142/original/image-20160104-27611-uj0lwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Malcolm Turnbull has faced calls to discipline Immigration Minister Peter Dutton (right) over a sexist text message sent to a female journalist.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Mick Tsikas</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Christmas Eve my best friend and I were celebrating the season by watching old music videos on YouTube. We were talking about Madonna and I said that I didn’t think she’d done anything particularly memorable since her 2000 song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYwgG2oyUbA">What It Feels Like For a Girl</a>.</p>
<p>My friend rightly pointed out the video was pretty crap. I attempted – albeit in a slightly jet-lagged state – to convey to him that my interest was less in the imagery – although, not having seen the clip in a decade, I still remembered the Ol Kuntz Guest House – and more so in the lyrics. </p>
<p>By accident or by design, the song is a catchy encapsulation of gender difference. Of gender <em>disparity</em>.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">What It Feels Like For A Girl.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I’m not going to provide a potted history of gender inequality here. I’ve written reams of such material in the past, and I don’t really spend much time focusing on inequality as a concept.</p>
<p>In recent days, however, Australian politicians have twice reminded us what it feels like for a girl to live in a world where some men don’t actually think very much of us. Equally, it’s been one hell of an insight into hypocrisy. </p>
<p>My rule – and one I repeat every time a politician is caught dispatching a dick pic – is that I couldn’t care less what they do in their private lives provided there isn’t a jarring conflict with their public works. If, however, a politician is actively pushing a conservative agenda and consciously working to shrink others’ liberties while privately romping with gay abandon, then I care deeply.</p>
<p>Such hypocrisy has recently come to the fore courtesy of a duo of Australian political dolts who have treated us to some predictable lip service while simultaneously being exposed for private ugly sexism and stereotyping.</p>
<p>Jamie Briggs acted like a moron at best and a wretched cretin at worst <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-29/mal-brough-and-jamie-briggs-stand-down-from-frontbench/7058266">on a recent Asian business trip</a>. Some late-night, ill-advised, Hong Kong bar shenanigans involving a female public servant led to his resignation from the cities portfolio.</p>
<p>During his ministerial-farewell <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-29/mal-brough-and-jamie-briggs-stand-down-from-frontbench/7058266">press conference</a>, Briggs seemed cognisant of the “particularly high standards for ministers”. And such standards were clearly at play in his goodbye letter to the prime minister when he publicly patted himself on the back for choosing – so incredibly <em>nobly</em> – not to name the woman who dared question his conduct in order “to protect her privacy and at her request”.</p>
<p>Such nobleness, such honour, continued when Briggs <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/jamie-briggs-photo-leak-a-gross-breach-of-privacy-20160103-glyh3x.html">circulated the woman’s photograph</a>, before and, again, after she dared complain about his behaviour. Cue pretty much <em>any</em> scholarly work about the psychology and politics underpinning revenge porn.</p>
<p>What it feels like for a girl.</p>
<p>Peter Dutton, yet another minister – charged professionally, albeit ironically, with the task of making us feel secure, and who is <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-11/dutton-overheard-joking-about-sea-levels-in-pacific-islands/6768324">no stranger to the public apology</a> – has committed one hell of a fat-finger fumble. In a so-very-dignified attempt to slag off a female journalist to his mate – shock horror, that mate being Briggs – he somehow managed to text the journo herself, calling her a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-04/dutton-apologises-after-sending-text/7065546">“mad fucking witch”</a>.</p>
<p>These cases aren’t just about men being dickheads. Dickheadery here is an apt summation, sure. But there’s more to it. Here we have two elected representatives – two <em>ministers</em> – who have granted us insight into what they actually think of women.</p>
<p>We have two men charged with representing their electorates, setting a standard, setting a national mood. And who have contended, apparently, that casual misogyny is fine, is larrikin, is <em>Australian</em>.</p>
<p>What it feels like for a girl.</p>
<p>Each March I find myself doing a fairly standard commercial radio interview. It’ll always be with an affable male host and he’ll invariably ask why we’re <em>still</em> talking about gender, about whether we <em>still</em> need an International Women’s Day and about whether this whole bra-burning fiasco isn’t all a bit passé. </p>
<p>I’ll toss out a few examples of inequality, here and abroad, and he’ll make a joke about “maybe having an International Men’s Day next year” – ha ha ha, he he he – and I’ll go about the rest of my day.</p>
<p>As someone who doesn’t walk around feeling unequal most of the time, I understand that for a lot of people in Australia – even for a lot of <em>women</em> – things don’t seem particularly dire here. Certainly not when there are women who can’t <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/10/27/7-ridiculous-restrictions-on-womens-rights-around-the-world/">drive or vote</a> elsewhere. Definitely not when <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/05/28/in-pakistan-honor-killings-claim-1000-womens-lives-annually-why-is-this-still-happening/">honour killings</a> / <a href="http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/vaw_legislation_2009/Expert%20Paper%20EGMGPLHP%20_Cheryl%20Thomas%20revised_.pdf">forced marriage</a> / <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/06/what-is-female-genital-mutilation-where-happen">female genital mutilation</a> are the problems of <em>other places</em>.</p>
<p>And yet, I’m always most interested in the minutiae; in how quick we are to dismiss something as a “first-world problem”. I’m fascinated by just how ready we are to dub the spotlighting of sexism as “whinging” and to claim that there are bigger fish to fry, larger problems to worry about and more important issues to devote time, money and column inches to.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107224/original/image-20160104-28974-16wy5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107224/original/image-20160104-28974-16wy5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107224/original/image-20160104-28974-16wy5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107224/original/image-20160104-28974-16wy5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107224/original/image-20160104-28974-16wy5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107224/original/image-20160104-28974-16wy5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107224/original/image-20160104-28974-16wy5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jamie Briggs spoke of respect for privacy, but his actions showed otherwise.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lukas Coch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For me, the fact that it seems so very <em>familiar</em> that a male politician would call a woman a “mad fucking witch” is because this kind of misogyny has become our ambient noise. We’re used to it. It’s only news now because it’s summertime and we’re all still in a turkey coma.</p>
<p>Publicly, Briggs spoke of high standards and respect for privacy and process. In private he showed that his standards are subterranean.</p>
<p>Publicly, Dutton admitted to sending the stupid text message but <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-04/dutton-apologises-after-sending-text/7065546">couched his confession</a> in a statement about he and the journo’s shared “robust” banter. </p>
<p>Both men framed their explanations in gender-neutral terms. Their behaviour was sub-optimal, sure, but apparently merely of the <em>generic</em> kind. No acknowledgement – predictably – was made that it’s nearly <em>always</em> women who get sexually harassed, or that <a href="https://theconversation.com/dining-out-on-the-prime-minister-time-to-change-the-menugate-15161">words like witch and bitch and crone and shrew</a> don’t have male equivalents. </p>
<p>Seemingly such behaviour – such banter – is all too commonplace to be read as gendered and scandalous and reprehensible.</p>
<p>If harassing colleagues in bars and calling women witches is not worth discussing, then we’re considering it OK. Then we’re viewing it as part of the landscape of Australian life. Then we’re consenting that this is what it feels like for a girl.</p>
<p>I’m not willing to put up with that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52688/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Rosewarne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australian politicians have twice reminded us what it feels like for a woman to live in a world where some men don’t actually think very much of us.Lauren Rosewarne, Senior Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/503112015-12-17T23:34:57Z2015-12-17T23:34:57ZNational spotlight on cities must not leave local input in the shade<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105020/original/image-20151209-3251-1in7hwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A community-led advocacy campaign helped steer the Victorian government away from building the East West Link.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Julian Smith</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government’s recent <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/turnbull-governments-cities-portfolio-what-does-it-mean-and-will-it-work-20150921-gjr5ub.html">turn to cities</a> is largely driven by its recognition that Australia’s cities are valuable economic assets. Cities Minister Jamie Briggs called his new job <a href="http://environment.gov.au/minister/briggs/2015/speeches/pubs/sp20151008.pdf">“fundamentally an economic portfolio”</a>.</p>
<p>Since the call for significant investment in cities, there has been no shortage of <a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-policy-could-the-federal-government-finally-get-cities-47858">great ideas</a> on how the government might tackle the intertwined urban, economic and prosperity priorities. And cohesive policies are needed to unlock cities’ productivity potential.</p>
<p>But little is being said about the governance arrangements needed to support these policies. In particular, there is a need for integrated planning and infrastructure funding. </p>
<p>Urban governance arrangements ought to acknowledge both the federal government’s important role and the critical role of local citizens and community interest groups. They should be seen as co-operative players in crafting urban policies. </p>
<p>In setting the national urban policy agenda, is the whole not greater than the sum of its parts?</p>
<h2>A national focus, but with a local impact</h2>
<p>The investment priorities set by federal and state governments uniquely impact local neighbourhoods and local identity. </p>
<p>The construction of mega urban infrastructure projects temporarily disrupts local life. But such projects also promise long-term transformation and renewal. This happens through development, population and jobs growth, and the revitalisation of neighbourhoods. </p>
<p>And the whole is better for it. Nationally significant urban economic priorities are advanced through bit-by-bit local outcomes. </p>
<p>But when the impact on communities is not well considered – such as when urban infrastructure projects are prioritised beyond the public domain and social or political assessments are cut off from public discussion – community protests loom. </p>
<p>Across this landscape, <a href="http://usj.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/08/27/0042098015602649.abstract">community-led advocacy</a> campaigns will emerge to steer governments toward a different approach. This happened recently in Melbourne with protests against the <a href="http://theconversation.com/the-east-west-link-is-dead-a-victory-for-21st-century-thinking-34914">East West Link</a>. </p>
<p>More of the same is unfolding in Sydney over the WestConnex project. <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/westconnex-protest-trails-splendour-in-the-grass-for-noise-20151119-gl2wnh.html">Community groups</a> continue to denounce the NSW government’s road-building agenda as a poor solution to the city’s transport problems. </p>
<h2>Cannot ‘manage out’ community opposition</h2>
<p>The cities minister has noted the importance of a national-local relationship for strong urban policy. In a keynote address at the <a href="http://www.jamiebriggs.com.au/MayoMedia/Media/tabid/64/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1694/Speech-Developing-Greater-Sydney-conference-Australias-Future-Cities-Challenge-Thursday-8-October-2015.aspx">Developing Greater Sydney Conference</a> in October, Briggs said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The outcome we seek is to deliver policies that attract and keep the best global talent, address the growing intergenerational inequity in our suburbs and ultimately improve the opportunities and lifestyles for all. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Briggs also said the new Cities and Built Environment Taskforce would consider “the challenge of community opposition” to urban infrastructure. What this actually means, and how it might be addressed, is unclear.</p>
<p>Briggs recognises the need to work co-operatively across state and local government. He said to expect the federal government to be not only:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… a very co-operative partner but one focused and willing to act to achieve outcomes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But to mitigate community opposition, a careful rethink is needed on how governments and infrastructure agencies – such as Infrastructure Australia and its state equivalents – invite residents and community groups to engage in national and state-level decision-making on urban policy. </p>
<p>Crucially, greater attention must be given to how infrastructure delivery decisions align with the objectives of the local – often community-driven – strategic planning vision. </p>
<p>A transparent approach to the sequencing of infrastructure delivery will ensure communities get the right projects at the right time in the right place.</p>
<h2>Placing residents and communities at the agenda’s core</h2>
<p>Large urban infrastructure proposals will always attract nuanced degrees of support and opposition from community groups and residents. </p>
<p>Despite efforts to engage citizens early in planning processes, if concern mounts around a project deemed not right for the community, or advocacy groups caution that other possibilities were not considered, community opposition will certainly grow. Briggs called this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… a problem that continues to hold our cities’ growth back and particularly challenges the capacity of governments to deliver the amenity required for greater density.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Briggs and the taskforce will seek to work collaboratively with all levels of government to fulfil its mandate. But there has been scant mention of how national-level interests will work with resident and neighbourhood groups. There needs to be a clear push for <a href="https://theconversation.com/without-a-national-cities-policy-who-joins-all-the-planning-dots-24634">inclusion in city planning</a>. </p>
<p>The collaborative dimensions of urban policy development and delivery are often neglected. Governments commit to “good” governance with little explanation of what that may look like in practice and what role communities may play. </p>
<p>But it is certainly within governments’ capacity to work with the community. In fact, it is their responsibility to ensure genuine local representation on the urban agenda.</p>
<p>Failing to tap the rich local knowledge and diverse expertise of groups with an interest in planning the places most meaningful to them risks a failure of democracy. It’s not a risk worth taking.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Crystal Legacy receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniela Minicucci does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Communities want urban policy to deliver the right projects at the right time in the right place. Governments should embrace local citizens and interest groups as key players in crafting such policy.Crystal Legacy, Australian Research Council (DECRA) Fellow and Vice Chancellor's Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT UniversityDaniela Minicucci, Research Assistant, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/499432015-11-03T00:31:26Z2015-11-03T00:31:26ZA national affordable housing strategy: necessary, attainable and maybe on its way<p>At the <a href="http://www.nhc.edu.au/">National Housing Conference</a> last week, there was considerable optimism about the newly appointed federal minister for cities, Jamie Briggs, whose infrastructure mandate <a href="http://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/news/australia-appoints-a-minister-for-cities-and-the-b">includes housing</a>. New energy is coming from the states with the largest affordable housing deficits – a <a href="http://www.nsw.gov.au/innovate/social-housing-assets">social housing initiative</a> from the New South Wales government and a “refreshed” <a href="http://refresh.planmelbourne.vic.gov.au/plan-melbourne-refresh-discussion-paper">metropolitan planning strategy</a> in Melbourne with a stronger emphasis on affordable housing. </p>
<p>It is now possible to imagine Australia having a national affordable housing strategy, backed by funding, by the end of 2016.</p>
<p>Australia certainly needs such a strategy. The population is projected to reach 38 million in the next 35 years. Sydney and Melbourne are each expected to grow by at least three million people. The <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/ageing-australia/ageing-australia-overview.pdf">proportion of older people</a> will be higher, with a lower proportion in the paid workforce.</p>
<p>This means we need at least six million new housing units in the next three decades. There is increasing impetus to locate these dwellings close to public transport, employment clusters and health and social services.</p>
<h2>Cost pressures are intensifying</h2>
<p>Rising housing demand and prices affect everyone, but low-income renters have <a href="http://housingstressed.org.au/get-the-facts/">fared worst</a> in recent years. Capital city rents rose by twice the level of inflation from 2005 to 2010. By 2011, the shortage of suitable rental properties exceeded 500,000. </p>
<p>As a result, even most households that receive Commonwealth Rent Assistance (projected to cost A$6.6 billion in 2015-16) <a href="http://www.welfarerights.org.au/sites/default/files/news/How%20Commonwealth%20Rent%20Assistance%20fails%20low%20income%20Australians.pdf">pay well over</a> the recommended maximum rent. Some 55% of the A$7.7 billion annual cost to the government of capital gains exemptions and negative gearing <a href="http://www.tai.org.au/content/negative-gearing-positive-richest-10">goes to the top 10%</a> of income earners. Only 4% goes to the bottom 20% of households by income. </p>
<p>Existing programs are not accomplishing policy aims. The Abbott government discontinued two small national programs, the <a href="http://www.chfv.org.au/database-files/view-file/?id=5378">Social Housing Initiative</a> co-funding construction of non-profit housing and the <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/our-responsibilities/housing-support/programmes-services/national-rental-affordability-scheme">National Rental Affordability Scheme</a> subsidising below-market rental housing. No national strategy or infrastructure funding program has replaced those small but important initiatives.</p>
<h2>Key steps towards affordability</h2>
<p>What would be the basic elements of a national affordable housing strategy? Economist <a href="http://www.futurecities.org.au/blog/2015-guests-dr-david-rosen">David Rosen</a> led a review of the US$7 trillion spent in the US on federal finance, tax, lending, spending and regulatory programs and policies. According to Rosen, the place to start is a standard definition of “affordable housing”. </p>
<p>The next step would be to calculate current and projected need for affordable housing by subtracting housing need from the available stock. There are local efforts to calculate this in cities like <a href="http://www.housinginvictoria.com.au/measures.aspx">Melbourne</a>, but it would need to be done in a consistent way across the country.</p>
<p>The cost of owning or renting a home includes rent or mortgage payments, property taxes and unit maintenance. A household can also incur onerous transport costs, if living far from employment and good public transport. Internationally, affordability is usually defined as housing that costs no more than 30-35% of household income, adjusted for household size.</p>
<p>For households earning less than 30% of their area’s median income, private market housing will almost certainly be out of reach without some form of subsidy. </p>
<p>In metropolitan Melbourne, for instance, the average weekly income is <a href="http://www.dtpli.vic.gov.au/data-and-research/population/census-2011/quick-facts">A$1333</a>. A little over 11% of households in the city (159,000 households) earn <a href="http://profile.id.com.au/australia/household-income?WebID=260">less than A$400 a week</a>, which is 30% of the median income. These households could only afford to pay a maximum of A$133 a week on the rent or mortgage. <a href="http://www.anglicare.asn.au/site/rental_affordability_snapshot.php">Less than 1% of rentals</a> in Melbourne are available at those prices.</p>
<p>Social housing constitutes less than 3% of total housing stock. Most of it is occupied by these low-income households. So, at the most basic level, affordable housing would seek to fill that shortfall of more than 150,000 units in one major city alone, as well as building for future affordable housing needs.</p>
<h2>How do we fund affordable housing?</h2>
<p>After calculating need, the next requirement for a national affordable housing strategy would be to identify all potential revenue sources to fund it. These could be direct funding from national, state and local governments, but also indirect funding through tax rebates, low- or no-cost land, or mechanisms like reduced parking requirements or expedited planning approvals (which cuts land-holding costs and uncertainties).</p>
<p>A plethora of mechanisms used in other countries could be adopted here. For instance, in the US the <a href="http://fas.org:8080/sgp/crs/misc/RS22389.pdf">Low Income Housing Tax Credit</a> has, since 1986, allowed private investors to obtain tax credits in return for a ten-year investment in constructing or rehabilitating low-income rental housing. The stable and bipartisan program injects about US$6 billion a year in capital into affordable housing.</p>
<p>If a small proportion of the negative gearing tax credit were re-allocated towards investment in social housing, a similarly scaled program could be instituted in Australia. Similarly, if the Commonwealth guaranteed a 6% return on social housing investment, how much of the <a href="https://www.superannuation.asn.au/resources/superannuation-statistics">A$2 trillion</a> held in superannuation funds could be unlocked?</p>
<p>For the past two years, the <a href="https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/transforming-housing-affordable-housing-all">Transforming Housing</a> project has brought together state and local government, private developers, community housing providers and commercial and philanthropic investors to identify barriers to scaling up affordable housing in metropolitan Melbourne and how to overcome them. </p>
<p>Much of the emphasis has been on mechanisms at a state and local level, ranging from value capture financing to innovative design and construction. However, there is growing consensus that a Commonwealth affordable housing strategy is essential to enable integrated action by other levels of government and the private and charitable sectors.</p>
<p>With a clear sense of the numbers around affordable housing need and a stable financing and renewal model, the Turnbull government could reap multiple co-benefits. A national strategy could make cities <a href="https://infrastructure.gov.au/infrastructure/pab/files/Our_Cities_National_Urban_Policy_Paper_2011.pdf">more liveable</a>, <a href="http://www.propertycouncil.com.au/Web/News/Articles/News_listing/Web/Content/News/National/2015/Find_out_how_property_helps_your_community.aspx">stimulate</a> the property and construction sector, and <a href="https://pathwaystohousing.org/housing-first-model">reduce healthcare costs</a>. The private and charitable sectors are waiting to swing into action.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was co-authored by: Dr David Rosen, principal of DRA Associates and an advisor on development, finance and policy; Rob Pradolin, general manager of business development for Frasers Property Australia; Catherine Brown, CEO of the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation; and Dr Heather Holst, deputy CEO and director of services and housing for Launch Housing.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49943/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carolyn Whitzman receives funding from the Victorian State Government, the Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip, the Property Council of Australia, Frasers Property Australia, and the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation.</span></em></p>It is now possible to imagine Australia having a national affordable housing strategy, backed by funding, by the end of 2016.Carolyn Whitzman, Professor of Urban Planning, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/488252015-10-27T19:19:58Z2015-10-27T19:19:58ZLiveable cities: who decides what that means and how we achieve it?<p><em><strong>Foundation essay:</strong> The Conversation has appointed a cities and policy editor to lead our coverage of the myriad issues affecting the urban centres where nine out of ten Australians live. This article sets the scene for exploring the many challenges facing cities today, as well as presenting solutions to the problems and highlighting the opportunities of life in the modern city.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has created a new ministry for cities and the built environment. Announcing his decision last month, <a href="http://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/media/Ministry">he said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Liveable, vibrant cities are absolutely critical to our prosperity. (They are) where the bulk of our economic growth can be found … (and they are) economic assets. (M)aking sure that Australia is a wonderful place to live in, that our cities and indeed our regional centres are wonderful places to live, is an absolutely key priority of every level of government. Because the most valuable capital in the world today is not financial capital … (it’s) human capital. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>While the question of what is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/melbourne-the-worlds-most-liveable-city-not-exactly-17677">“liveable city”</a> inspires endless debate, less thought has been given to making urban planning a more democratic process. </p>
<h2>Natural evolution and the birth of urban planning</h2>
<p>In the 18th century, one of London’s <a href="http://www.londonlives.org/static/Policing.jsp">pioneer police magistrates</a>, Henry Fielding, strove to keep the streets of the city clear of crime and vice. But in the course of his work Fielding also went out of his way to help prostitutes and petty criminals. He understood that the city was made up of all sorts of people with different values and cultures. </p>
<p>Fielding was living in a period when London was experiencing a <a href="https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Population-history-of-london.jsp">population boom</a>, going from just over 500,000 in 1700 to 900,000 in the 1801 census. </p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects.html">54% of the world’s population</a> lives in cities, which have historically drawn people from myriad economic, social and cultural backgrounds. Cities have always been places of integration, intense population pressures, migration flows, cultural interactions and variations in socioeconomic positioning and values.</p>
<p>Fielding was interested in making London a liveable city, although the term would have been anachronistic to him. Yet it appears almost ubiquitous in contemporary policymaking, urban planning and in the public imagination. A liveable city has become the highest form of praise we can give to a city space. </p>
<p>But liveable for whom? The implication is that ordinary people should be able to inhabit cities. Yet how governments generate affordable housing, and even who is allowed to have a say in the planning and development of a city, is often badly developed. </p>
<h2>Where does democracy fit in?</h2>
<p>Is a liveable city a democratic city? Who gets to participate in the process of governing and shaping a city?</p>
<p>In the early 20th century, modern cities were thought to evolve according to “natural” processes, combining migration, growth and the urban form. Urban sociologists from the Chicago School <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2084475?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">outlined</a> how cities evolved like living social organisms balancing conflict and co-operation, density, heterogeneity and tolerance. Ernest Burgess even <a href="http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1050993.files/2-15%20-%20Ernest%20Burgess%20-%20The%20growth%20of%20the%20City.pdf">suggested</a> that the very form of the modern city developed in predictable fashion as a set of “concentric rings”, with production and workers’ cottages in a singular inner centre and more affluent suburbs at the extremities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99617/original/image-20151026-18421-14fkgz2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99617/original/image-20151026-18421-14fkgz2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99617/original/image-20151026-18421-14fkgz2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99617/original/image-20151026-18421-14fkgz2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99617/original/image-20151026-18421-14fkgz2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99617/original/image-20151026-18421-14fkgz2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99617/original/image-20151026-18421-14fkgz2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99617/original/image-20151026-18421-14fkgz2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A failure to plan contributes to urban sprawl as cities spread along major highways.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_sprawl#/media/File:Los_Angeles_-_Echangeur_autoroute_110_105.JPG">Wikimedia Commons/Remi Jouan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such ideas have given way to a more complex depiction of post-modern cities, incorporating multiple (or no) centres, historical communities, development interests and urban planning. Urban planning is seen as an essential technical science. A <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/75353.Edge_City">failure to plan</a> is associated with dystopian images of suburban sprawl, of the “exopolis” without facilities or a civic centre, or of “edge cities” growing like lichen along the intersections of major highways.</p>
<p>Appropriate planning is aimed at building the best cities to enhance quality of life and attract the elite of the global workforce. We strive to find a formula for the most liveable city and potentially top the <a href="http://www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.aspx?campaignid=Liveability2015">EIU’s Global Liveability Ranking</a> (which Melbourne achieved in 2015). </p>
<p>Urban planners explore how cities can be sustainable and how a continuous food and water supply can be ensured, but they also deal with concerns about over-population, migration and what happens when poverty is concentrated in certain areas, which can increase the potential for crime.</p>
<h2>Cities as economic sites or liveable places</h2>
<p>Soon after his appointment, the new cities minister, Jamie Briggs, <a href="http://www.jamiebriggs.com.au/MayoMedia/Media/tabid/64/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1675/Media-Release-Appointment-to-the-Ministry-Monday-21-September-2015.aspx">conveyed</a> his vision of cities as economic sites:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Cities are one of the great drivers of our economy. Most Australians live in our cities and the majority of businesses are based in or around them. They are the engine room of commerce, infrastructure, innovation, the arts, science and development. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>While it’s true that historically people have been drawn to cities because of the economic opportunities they offered, such claims disguise both the difficulties for urban migrants and environments that economic opportunities have created, as well as the negative implications for those remaining in rural areas.</p>
<p>Before 1871, migrants from across France settled in Paris as a consequence of its economic opportunities and political importance. The social disconnection implicit in such movement became evident in Emile Durkheim’s 1897 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58095.On_Suicide">study of French suicide rates</a> and the breakdown in traditional forms of social solidarity. </p>
<p>Migration also played out broader social inequalities across the nation in urban space. People grouped in neighbourhoods based on shared languages and dialects that related to their home regions. Within those districts, rich and poor shared the same buildings, their wealth demarcated by their positioning in the building.</p>
<p>Perhaps this was better for social integration than many modern environments, but a focus on the city as an economic space can lose sight of how cities are made liveable. Social relationships are key to central ideas of safety, belonging and ownership. </p>
<p>In 1903, Georg Simmel <a href="http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/bpl_images/content_store/sample_chapter/0631225137/bridge.pdf">described the metropolis</a> as a blasé, rationalised space that alienates people from people and feelings, in that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… punctuality, calculability, exactness are forced upon life by the complexity and extension of metropolitan existence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sixty years later, however, Jane Jacobs <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30833.The_Death_and_Life_of_Great_American_Cities">defended</a> the city as a myriad of communities in that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the trust of a city street is formed over time from many, many little public sidewalk contacts.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What makes the ideal Australian city?</h2>
<p>Is it Canberra, which divides public opinion with its low density, its roundabouts and planned streets? Is it Sydney or Melbourne with their high-density cultural vibrancy? Or is it the small country towns, which often appear communal in ways larger cities do not?</p>
<p>We often think of the attachment we have towards cities in emotional terms; we love or hate a place, we feel comfortable or settled in some spaces but not in others. We instinctively speak about cities in terms of their emotional impact on our lives. </p>
<p>Even Wordsworth, renowned for his love of nature and solitude, spoke of his emotional attachment to the city. Reflecting on his first sight of London, he <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=CQ73AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA263&lpg=PA263&dq=%22A+weight+of+ages+did+at+once+descend%22&source=bl&ots=0n0Uxkijdk&sig=FINPIn8wP8rYzCSvvwpFOhVjFek&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAmoVChMItYmGp_jeyAIVpl2mCh1ZUQjv#v=onepage&q=%22A%20weight%20of%20ages%20did%20at%20once%20descend%22&f=false">wrote</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A weight of ages did at once descend </p>
<p>Upon my heart – no thought embodied, no</p>
<p>Distinct remembrances, but weight and power, </p>
<p>Power growing with the weight… </p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Wordsworth, as for others then and now, the city inspired a complex set of emotions.</p>
<h2>What the new ministry needs to do</h2>
<p>First, it needs to recognise the cultural, aesthetic and emotional elements of cities. It needs to acknowledge the importance of cultural activity ahead of the pursuit of commerce and the idea of cities as “economic assets”.</p>
<p>The aesthetic qualities of space are crucial to the notion of a liveable city. These became important in the 18th century with a growing appreciation of the ways that environment shaped the self and emotional behaviours. </p>
<p>To produce “civilised” behaviours in their populace, urban planners laid out wide streets, introduced sewage and flowing water, added street lamps and began to police both the behaviour and cleanliness of the urban environment. This was not just about practical benefits to the population, but reflected a strong belief that surrounding yourself with beauty enabled people to be better versions of themselves. </p>
<p>Such ideas remain important to the present. Historians of emotions spend a lot of time thinking about how cities and spaces create emotions, historically but with implications for modern spaces. Urban planning (or its lack) can produce emotions in inhabitants, whether that is the disgust at poor sewage and disease that inspired reform in 18th-century Copenhagen or 20th-century Sydney, the anger and tensions caused by ghettoisation of minority groups, or the political unrest caused by poor housing and overcrowding. </p>
<p>Perhaps most famously, cities have provided “outcast” individuals, such as gay men and lesbians, with a space to create a community, to find affirmation of their feelings and to build pride and political identity. A narrow focus on the city as a driver of the economic, without an appreciation of how the urban shapes those who live within it can act as a challenge to social stability and personal wellbeing.</p>
<p>Historically, the use of space in cities has been a matter of pride, displaying important cultural and architectural landmarks, but also an issue of public health and safety, preventing the spread of diseases, fires and crime. Our historical knowledge of cities can be enormously helpful in informing current ideas about city planning by showing how people have reacted emotionally to city spaces in the past.</p>
<p>The answer to the question of what makes a city liveable is complex and constantly evolving. Because of this we should be insisting on answers about what will be happening to Australia’s cities in the next few decades.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48825/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Merridee L. Bailey receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Milka receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Lyons receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Lemmings receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gordon Raeburn receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Barclay receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Patulny receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Bristow receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>A liveable city has become the highest form of praise we can give to a city space. But we need to discuss what that means and who gets to participate in the process of governing and shaping a city.Merridee L. Bailey, Senior Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, University of AdelaideAmy Milka, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, University of AdelaideCraig Lyons, MSc Candidate in Human Geography, School of Geosciences, University of SydneyDavid Lemmings, Professor of History, University of AdelaideGordon Raeburn, Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of Emotions, The University of MelbourneKatie Barclay, Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, University of AdelaideRoger Patulny, Lecturer in Sociology, University of WollongongThomas Bristow, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/483832015-09-30T03:55:25Z2015-09-30T03:55:25ZPolitics podcast: Jamie Briggs on the infrastructure needs of Australian cities<p>In the cabinet <a href="https://theconversation.com/turnbulls-clean-sweep-in-reshuffle-with-hockey-likely-for-washington-47833">reshuffle</a> that followed the Liberal Party <a href="https://theconversation.com/malcolm-turnbull-ousts-tony-abbott-in-dramatic-party-coup-47512">leadership spill</a>, new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appointed Jamie Briggs as the Minister for Cities and the Built Environment.</p>
<p>Jamie Briggs joins Michelle Grattan to talk about his new portfolio, the policy pivot away from just roads toward other infrastructure projects like public transport, the changes under the new prime minister and much more.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48383/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Jamie Briggs talks to Michelle Grattan about his new portfolio, the policy pivot away from just roads toward other infrastructure projects like public transport, and much more.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/478582015-09-28T03:40:51Z2015-09-28T03:40:51ZUrban policy: could the federal government finally ‘get’ cities?<p>The appointment of a <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/minister/briggs/index.html">federal minister for cities and the built environment</a> is a signal moment in urban policy in Australia. It is a much-needed portfolio for an overwhelmingly urban nation but will need new policy capacity if the government’s urban goals are to be realised. </p>
<p>Australian cities are among the fastest-growing in the developed world. They face problems of poor housing affordability, growing inequality, inadequate and inefficient infrastructure, unsustainable environmental demand and uneven employment distribution and productivity.</p>
<p>Long neglected federally, urban affairs is the gaping void in 21st-century public policy. Not since 1972 has Australia seen both the Labor and the Liberal parties commit to a cities portfolio within the Commonwealth ministry. That this has now occurred under a Coalition government is especially unusual.</p>
<p>Labor governments have been most engaged with urban questions. Curtin initiated a federal housing program and spurred states to better urban planning. Whitlam sewered neglected suburbs and stabilised fringe land markets, while Keating stimulated inner-city urban renewal. The Rudd-Gillard government boosted infrastructure and set national principles for metropolitan planning.</p>
<p>The short-lived McMahon government’s 1972 <a href="https://www.comlaw.gov.au/Series/C1972L00183">National Urban and Regional Development Authority</a> is the only previous Coalition urban foray of note. </p>
<h2>Creating the capacity to do urban policy</h2>
<p>As the new minister, Jamie Briggs’s agenda is not yet detailed, although it looks set to focus on <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/malcolm-turnbull-sends-gang-of-three-to-unclog-cities/story-fn59niix-1227542862627?sv=9d68d99a6c06e535533c7f2c184e8e8e">integration, infrastructure and greening</a>. What could a new urban program look like, and what are the urban reform imperatives facing the Turnbull government? </p>
<p>The first task must surely be to develop permanent urban analytical and policy capacity in the federal public service. The Department of Environment, where the cities minister will be hosted, has almost no urban policy capability. The strongest federal urban capacity is in the <a href="https://infrastructure.gov.au/infrastructure/pab/">Planning Analysis Branch</a> of the Department of Infrastructure. The Turnbull government must build rapidly off this small but competent base.</p>
<p>A second task is to create federal capacity for cross-portfolio policy coordination. A cities agenda requires federal arrangements that can link across transport, infrastructure, environment, housing, finance, education, health and social services to build a multi-dimensional policy perspective on cities. </p>
<p>The third capacity-building task is to re-establish national coordination arrangements for urban policy. The federation gives almost all hands-on urban responsibility to the states but the Commonwealth has the revenue. The previous Labor government worked through the <a href="https://www.coag.gov.au/">Council of Australian Governments</a> (COAG) to establish consensus principles for major city planning and investment in a largely bipartisan way. That process could be revived and improved with relative ease.</p>
<p>A robust evidence base exists on which to ground policy directions but it is not well linked with policy. Capability development should thus also extend to Australia’s high-quality but under-resourced university research sector. The extensive network of scholars within the <a href="https://www.be.unsw.edu.au/centres/city-futures/state-australian-cities-research-network">State of Australian Cities Research Network</a> could assist with this task, as could the <a href="http://www.ahuri.edu.au/">Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute</a>. </p>
<p>The final capacity need is for federal policy to establish its own analytical framework. The urban sector abounds with rent-seekers. A federal urban perspective must stand above such rent-seeking to develop a sophisticated conceptual stance on how our cities work and the levers of policy. </p>
<h2>Directions for policy</h2>
<p>The overturning of Tony Abbott’s aversion to public transport funding is a welcome sign of progress. Public transport is vital for future urban productivity and sustainability. </p>
<p>New arrangements are needed to make transparent the external urban costs of private car use, whether through road and parking user pricing or via enhanced environmental emissions charging. Such measures need to be progressive, however, so the burden does not fall unfairly on low-income, car-dependent households with the fewest alternatives. </p>
<p>Building infrastructure alone is unlikely to improve how our cities function. We need to make better use of existing assets. This includes dedicated multi-modal network coordination in public transport, as the 2009 <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Rural_and_Regional_Affairs_and_Transport/Completed%20inquiries/2008-10/public_transport/index">Senate inquiry into public transport</a> advocated, accompanied by optimisation of existing road space via conversion to high-frequency transit routes. </p>
<p>Further areas in urgent need of intervention are Australia’s inflated and exclusionary urban housing markets. <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/negative-gearing">Negative gearing</a> should be reformed as a tax credit scheme with transparency to ensure the value of the concession is targeted to the most needy urban renters.</p>
<p>We need an urban taxation regime that captures the value gains from federal investment. Land value uplift from infrastructure investment should not accrue to private interests but be recycled into the federal funding pool. </p>
<p>A national approach to replace stamp duty with broad-based land taxes is also needed. This would improve the flexibility and efficiency of urban housing markets while retaining a financing stream for urban investment. Land tax should be progressive, so it targets land value and housing wealth, not housing consumption. </p>
<p>A progressive capital gains tax on owner-occupied housing could also be applied to dampen price inflation and raise new public revenue. Similarly, a national approach to inclusionary zoning mechanisms for affordable housing would also help to ensure urban redevelopment creates new social housing supply. </p>
<p>As a suburban nation Australia faces serious gaps in how it plans new suburbs and renews existing areas. A national suburban policy is needed to improve the quality of fringe development and facilitate the renewal of ageing middle suburbs for new housing. </p>
<p>Employment distribution in Australian cities is highly uneven. Ready access to high-quality jobs is increasingly the preserve of inner-urban households. Federal support for expansion of suburban employment nodes linked to public transport could ensure more higher-quality jobs are closer to the places households live. Ensuring land-use zoning does not exclude workers from job-rich middle suburbs is a further task. </p>
<p>Reform of the planning arrangements for our cities is desperately needed. National principles for metropolitan planning, as COAG established in 2009, are not unhelpful. But we need governing entities that can plan and manage cities at the metropolitan level while providing a democratic accompaniment to the current dominance of state planning ministers. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Turnbull has <a href="http://www.govnews.com.au/turnbull-could-drive-a-new-focus-on-cities/">previously argued</a> that density is the solution to our urban woes but that poorly done density reduces amenity. High-amenity densification is possible but <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-carbon-devil-in-the-detail-on-urban-density-4226">the urban science on very-high-density development</a> shows its environmental performance is often poor.</p>
<p>Density can help to improve our cities but only as part of carefully crafted wider changes to spatial structure via infrastructure, housing and governance reform. Density is a means, not an end in itself. Plans to expand green space and provide for biodiversity in cities must be part of any densification strategy. </p>
<h2>Putting policy to work</h2>
<p>A sense of urgency is needed. The urban sphere is dominated by what Nicole Gurran and Peter Phibbs have called <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02673037.2015.1044948?journalCode=chos20#.VgS8RWSqqko">busy work</a> in which policy discussion and review defer substantial change.</p>
<p>Moreover urban policy is often captive to property, infrastructure and financial interests that put their private gain over the public interest. The Turnbull urban agenda needs to be more than a talking point or vehicle for shoddy deals.</p>
<p>Urban policy is the key policy discipline of the 21st century. It needs to be placed at the core of Australia’s federal policy arrangements.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47858/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jago Dodson is affiliated with the Australian Cities Research Network, the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub and the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. </span></em></p>For the first time, both major parties have a cities portfolio in their front bench team. With a few more changes, the government could create a structure that will really get to grips with urban issues.Jago Dodson, Professor of Urban Policy and Director Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.