In the fast lane: Bypassing third party objections and appeals in third party planning process (original) (raw)
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2018
Over the past two decades, Australian planning policies have supported largely unregulated land speculation and gentrification in relatively well served inner and middle suburbs, leading to displacement of low and moderate income households and growing spatial inequalities. The current Victorian state government signalled a new direction by ‘refreshing’ the third metropolitan strategy in as many decades, Plan Melbourne (2014/2017), with an increased emphasis on ‘diverse housing close to jobs, transport and services. It also established a new independent infrastructure advisory body that defined social housing as an infrastructure priority, and developed a ‘whole of government’ affordable housing strategy. Through a content analysis of Plan Melbourne, along with the two associated recent strategies, this paper asks whether they provide sufficient regulatory, governance and finance mechanisms to address and potentially reverse the trend towards greater social polarisation. We conclude...
Can Australian Governments Steer Just Intensification.docx
Over the past two decades, Australian planning policies have supported largely unregulated land speculation and gentrification in relatively well served inner and middle suburbs, leading to displacement of low and moderate income households and growing spatial inequalities. The current Victorian state government signalled a new direction by ‘refreshing’ the third metropolitan strategy in as many decades, Plan Melbourne (2014/2017), with an increased emphasis on ‘diverse housing close to jobs, transport and services. It also established a new independent infrastructure advisory body that defined social housing as an infrastructure priority, and developed a ‘whole of government’ affordable housing strategy. Through a content analysis of Plan Melbourne, along with the two associated recent strategies, this paper asks whether they provide sufficient regulatory, governance and finance mechanisms to address and potentially reverse the trend towards greater social polarisation. We conclude that absence of a coherent vision, strong evidence base, coordinated partnership mechanisms, and ambitious targets combine to make progress towards more just intensification unlikely.
2013
In response to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-9, city planning in Australia has seen state governments embrace infrastructure packages to stimulate the economy. In particular, the delivery of social housing through the Social Housing Initiative (SHI) occurred through a fast-tracked method of planning. This represented a departure from the local statutory processes, which offer residents engagement opportunities and gave local government control of approving social housing construction in existing established areas of the city. This paper examines how government strategies to deliver social housing in difficult economic climates impacted upon democratic planning in Australian Cities. Reporting on recent AHURI research that compared local opposition to affordable housing projects in two States within the period of the Commonwealth Government’s Social Housing Initiative (2009-2012), this paper draws on semi-structured interviews with State and local government planners, housing providers and politicians in Victoria and New South Wales. These interviews show that government stimulus programs, whilst delivering essential infrastructure to cities in a quick and efficient manner, can lead to the re-politicisation of its delivery. Drawing upon the emerging literature on post-politics, this research suggests that locally democratic planning practices respond to national/state government intervention strategies in a variety of ways, which is changing the politics of social infrastructure delivery.
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Democratic infrastructure? Delivering affordable housing under Australia's social housing initiative
In response to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-9, city planning in Australia has seen state governments embrace infrastructure packages to stimulate the economy. In particular, the delivery of social housing through the Social Housing Initiative (SHI) occurred through a fast-tracked method of planning. This represented a departure from the local statutory processes, which offer residents engagement opportunities and gave local government control of approving social housing construction in existing established areas of the city. This paper examines how government strategies to deliver social housing in difficult economic climates impacted upon democratic planning in Australian Cities. Reporting on recent AHURI research that compared local opposition to affordable housing projects in two States within the period of the Commonwealth Government's Social Housing Initiative (2009)(2010)(2011)(2012), this paper draws on semi-structured interviews with State and local government planners, housing providers and politicians in Victoria and New South Wales. These interviews show that government stimulus programs, whilst delivering essential infrastructure to cities in a quick and efficient manner, can lead to the re-politicisation of its delivery. Drawing upon the emerging literature on post-politics, this research suggests that locally democratic planning practices respond to national/state government intervention strategies in a variety of ways, which is changing the politics of social infrastructure delivery.
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Australian Journal of Public Administration, 2016
This paper seeks to contribute to the debate over the efficacy of voluntary agreements versus regulation, and uses a study of the Livable Housing Design initiative to deliver voluntarily new-built accessible housing in Australia. We first probe why regulation has become such a significant component of government policy making, and then ask why political campaigns focus on this issue as a strategy for reform. We refer to research by disability activists, which claims that the voluntary approach has failed and regulation is necessary. Amongst our conclusions are: first; that the disjuncture between policy rhetoric and outcome can be attributed to the power of lobbyists, reliance on the private market to address inequality, and antipathy to regulatory enforcement and second; that there is a need for greater interrogation of the language deployed in policy texts to identify whether they are crafted to maintain the government's legitimacy or to deliver purposeful change.
Australian Journal of Political Science, 2016
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