Australian Unintended Cities

A noticeable feature of Australian urban policy making is the increasing disjuncture between government rhetoric and service delivery. Government departments at both Federal and State level churn out glossy strategy documents that are awash with aspirational statements professing to tackle problems such as housing affordability, homelessness, suburban sprawl, and traffic congestion. These documents, more often than not, contain platitudinous terms such as ‘liveability’, ‘sustainability’, ‘community wellbeing’, ‘inter-agency collaboration’, and ‘partnerships’, yet they inevitably fall short in setting out how programs are to achieve their objectives. Perhaps I am being too cynical but there seems to be an inverse relationship between urban policy aspiration and implementation.