A report into the future of Australian society is calling on the newly elected Rudd Government to meet the challenges facing the country’s diverse cities and regions.
The Challenges and Directions for Australia’s Urban and Regional Future: Identifying the Key Issues report is from the Australia Futures Task Force , which is the collective effort of national panel of 18 prominent urban and regional analysts who are members of the Australian Research Council Research Network in Spatially Integrated Social Science (ARCRNSISS).
Led by Bob Stimson, Professor of Geographical Sciences and Planning at the Institute for Social Science Research at The University of Queensland, and economist Professor Bill Mitchell from the Centre of Full Employment and Equity at the University of Newcastle, the report sets out a comprehensive listing of the pressing issues confronting people, governments and business across the nation’s cities, towns and regions.
Professor Stimson said tone of the major findings of the report was what is widely regarded as an "infrastructure crisis" across Australia.
“The deficiencies have been made worse by years of neglect and inadequate action by state and territory governments and the questionable capacity of the local government sector as currently structured and funded,” Professor Stimson said.
“This is particularly evident in the problems the big cities suffer from traffic congestion, inadequate public transport, water infrastructure deficiencies, and the inadequacies in port infrastructure and their poor integration land transport systems.
“These infrastructure deficiencies have adverse impacts on business efficiency, export performance, and energy efficiency. They adversely affect national as well as regional performance and competitiveness.”
He said nowhere is that need for federal leadership and an across-government co-ordinated approach more evident than in how we are going to manage the challenges presented by climate change and develop and implement strategies to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
“These crucial issues are spatially very specific and the way we address them over the long-term will have profoundly different implications - both positive and negative – for specific places across Australia,” Professor Stimson said.
Professor Mitchell said the objective of the Australia Futures Task Force report was to promote an informed debate on some of the important ‘big issues’ confronting Australia’s cities and its regions which require innovative institutional responses.
“The Task Force is calling for federal leadership in developing an across-government co-ordinated and collaborative approach to the six big issues discussed in the report: the changing demographic balance; engaging with work - labour markets, jobs, incomes and skills; housing choice and affordability; infrastructure deficiencies; the environmental and resource management imperative; and institutional dysfunction and reform,” Professor Mitchell said.
“This includes significant institutional reform to revamp the way the federal system operates to: deliver new approaches to solve the infrastructure deficiencies of both the big cities and regions across Australia; tackle the potential impacts of climate change; secure water supply; find a fix to halt the deterioration in housing affordability; and tackle the continuing relatively high incidence of under-employment, particularly in some regions.”
Professor Stimson will launch the report on Friday at the 3rd State of Australian Cities conference in Adelaide.
Media inquiries: Professor Bob Stimson (07 3365 6307 or 0411 020 627) or Professor Bill Mitchell (02 4921 5027 or 0419 422 410) or ARCRNSISS Manager
Tracey Johnstone (07 3365 8594 or 0419 120 010).
Copies of the Australia Futures Task Force Report # 1, Challenges and Directions for Australia’s Urban and Regional Future: Identifying the Key Issues, can be accessed on the ARCRNSISS web site at www.siss.edu.au
