Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Urban policy
policy challenges that confront Australian cities are housing, jobs, food security and
transport. A key task of urban policy is to build a network that allows different
people, sectors and organisations to work together, across their differences, to plan
and build a better city for every citizen. This raises critical questions about what a
cityisandwhoacityisfor.
This challenge is complicated by the urban policy domain itself, which is
shaped by the constitutional and statutory arrangements between federal, state/
territory and local governments in Australia. These arrangements determine how
‘the state’ (federal, state and local governments and their agencies) intervenes in ‘the
urban’, as an arena for the formulation, implementation and contestation of policies.
The development and realisation of effective urban policy is further challenged by
the complexities of urban governance and the messiness of urban space.
Urban governance is the process through which a city is governed. It involves
different government agencies at different levels with diverse interests and responsibilities
in relation to the urban arena, which they may pursue (such as major
infrastructure provision) or disregard (such as ensuring access to safe, secure
affordable housing). It also involves other, non-governmental actors and interests in
the private and third (non-profit or community) sectors. Urban policy is therefore
characterised by the ‘search for co-ordination’ 2 as the policy challenges cities face
are cross-cutting and multi-level and require multi-agency, cross-sector responses.
Policy co-ordination across the government portfolios of transport, infrastructure,
environment, housing, finance, education, health and social services would be
required to build a ‘multi-dimensional policy perspective’ on cities. 3
The urban space of cities is also complex. In terms of politics and public policy,
we need to know who is responsible for what (where infrastructure is provided
and services delivered) and who has a say (who is involved in policy formulation
and delivery, who gets to vote). But this is complicated too. For example, urban
regions might comprise more than one local government area, so it makes sense
that public service provision, such as public transport, is co-ordinated at a higher
level to ensure there is a transport network that serves residents who live in one
local government area, work in another and use services or access amenities like
public open space in a third. In Australia, there is a renewed focus on long-term
metropolitan planning, with periodic discussion of a national, federal governmentdriven
urban agenda. But Australia does not have an elected metropolitan (between
local and state) level of government responsible for planning and co-ordination of
itsurbanregions.Inturn,weknowthatpeople’sstrongestattachmentstendtobeto
local places, rather than urban regions. Furthermore, while some policies explicitly
target ‘the urban’ in terms of the place or the people who live there, many policies
that are not urban-targeted have urban effects. Finally, cities are part of wider, often
2 Cochrane 2007.
3 Dodson 2015.
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