Many people think a population policy is about control – like the one-child policy in China, for instance. But modern population policies are about population-well-being.
Benjamen Gussen’s proposal for a ‘charter city’ in the Pilbara stimulated this imaginary depiction.
Justin Bolleter
Business-as-usual projections assume our four biggest cities must absorb three-quarters of Australia’s population growth over the next 30 years. Might new cities be a better way to deal with it?
Rail investments have brought Ballarat, Geelong and other regional centres closer in travel time to Melbourne than many outer suburbs.
Tony & Wayne/flickr
Victoria offers lessons in the benefits of integrating metropolitan and regional planning, using regional rail to shrink distance and ease the pressures of growth on our big capital cities.
Geelong’s relatively high creative industries score, coupled with a robust rate of business entries, provides a solid foundation for steady growth.
paulrommer from www.shutterstock.com
Regional cities can be as effective at generating jobs and growth as their big five metro cousins. But they must identify and build on their strengths to be investment-ready.
Central Queensland University and James Cook University are part of the Townsville City Deal signed by three tiers of government in December 2016.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Universities can lead the way in creating opportunities for the economic development of regional cities and outer metropolitan areas under new City Deals.
The Elvis Express travels from Sydney to Parkes for a festival, now in its 25th year, that has transformed the town.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Outside the capital cities and the coastal fringes, the towns and people of rural and regional Australia have had to be inventive to get through the tough times.
Only about 5% of Australians live in the tropics, but it is not a mysterious or unopened land of limitless untapped potential. The ambition of northern development dates back to the 19th century.
The draft regional plan, ShapingSEQ, released by Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, has been influenced by ‘stakeholders’ rather than representative community input.
Twitter
The draft plan for Southeast Queensland largely takes a ‘provide land for the predicted demand’ approach, which assumes regional planning is a type of technical process best left to the experts.
Connecting the city and regions, long-distance commuting is a significant factor in regional centres.
Peter Mackey/flickr
Long-distance commuting may help promote the development of regional cities by boosting local populations, skills and incomes.
A lack of differences in major policy areas such as agriculture and trade means local project funding – for roads, boat ramps and the like – reinforces the adage ‘all politics is local’.
AAP/Alan Porritt
On the big national policies affecting non-metropolitan Australia, such as agriculture and trade, the major party differences are minor. That’s why the election focus turns to local projects.
Melbourne is one of the fastest-growing cities in the developed world, and the other big Australian cities aren’t far behind.
AAP/David Crosling
With the failures of past planning now apparent, the unruly threat of a damaged and depleting planet is ushering us toward a fourth era of urban restructuring. What might City v4.0 look like?
Man in the middle: former Labor MP turned independent Billy Gordon (centre) is now one of three crucial cross-bench MPs in the Queensland parliament.
Dan Peled/AAP
In his budget speech, George Osborne claimed that the north grew faster than the south last year. Is he right?
Rio Tinto’s Mount Thorley-Warkworth mine in the Hunter Valley, which looks set to expand further. The NSW planning department says it would “not be reasonable” to require Rio Tinto “to completely or even partially backfill the final void”.
Lock The Gate Alliance/Flickr
There are hundreds of derelict mine sites across New South Wales – and the state planning department has admitted it is “not aware of the total size” of large mining voids currently being left behind.
Then treasurer and now New South Wales Premier Mike Baird (centre) at Newcastle’s Wickham train station in 2013.
AAP/Michael Sin
If you’re looking for key battles to watch in the New South Wales election, which could help decide who forms the next state government, then you need to know the story of the Newcastle railway line.
China’s President Xi Jinping, pictured gesturing at center, last month launched the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a project the US hopes to stymie.
Reuters
In an influential speech in 2005, then-US deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick called on China to become a “responsible stakeholder” in the international community. To optimists, China’s recent efforts…
The European Union has never been so unpopular among its member populations; for many political parties across the continent, the whole EU project of integration and co-operation is dying, or was a mistake…
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has renewed debate about the effectiveness of health systems and how best to support collective regional action. Having comprehensive, accessible and sustainable systems…
Manchester, could be part of a new megacity in the north.
Daniel Nisbet
The UK’s economy is highly unbalanced; we have the worst regional disparities in the developed world and London’s property prices are also the world’s most expensive – second only to Monaco. Rebalancing…