Source: 2. Skip to content Skip to navigation. Victoria's capabilities Why Melbourne? Current page: One of the world's most liveable cities. One of the world's most liveable cities. World's most liveable city, seven years running The Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Index awarded Melbourne as the world's top city for seven years running. Outstanding theatre, arts and culture Melbourne is a city buzzing with dynamic and cutting-edge arts and culture.
The best sporting events in the world Melbourne puts on a spectacular series of large-scale sporting events throughout the year. World's most liveable city, seven years running. Outstanding theatre, arts and culture. The best sporting events in the world. Australia's best visitor destination. Melbourne is a truly magnificent city in which to live, work and study. Going to the city centre in the evening was not a great experience at all. It was deserted.
A few service people p. It was even worse on the weekend—the city centre was as if neutron-bombed. By the early s, however, the city had been brought back to life. Gehl : As elsewhere in Australia, local government in the State of Victoria is subject to the ultra vires principle, where it is restricted to those functions explicitly granted to it by higher levels of government. While the role of Australian local government has evolved over time Dollery et al. The Minister for Local Government in each jurisdiction retains the authority to dismiss democratically elected local politicians if they consider a municipality is not well managed.
Table An important part of this governance story is that, while the city government was democratically elected again in , the new Labor State Government removed its planning powers. The authority to approve all major planning applications within central Melbourne was delegated to planning minister and former architect Evan Walker, and the Victorian State Government still retains these planning powers.
In , it liberalized liquor licensing laws, enabling many new restaurants and opening the streets for al fresco dining Zajdow In the meantime, the city government focused its efforts on management reforms and strategic planning processes.
Building on its never implemented strategic plan from , the City of Melbourne Strategy Plan was developed as an intervention to rehabilitate and stimulate the city following more than a decade of policy neglect Melbourne City Council As discussed in more detail in the next section, its development was guided by a steering committee which led to a shared understanding and ownership of urban design strategies, and the deliberate recruitment of consultants and experienced staff who shared their vision and values Ord : 39— Led by social and environmental planners and activists, many of whom were members of the local Labor Party and who had contributed to the community consultation on the popular Strategy Plan, MVA monitored the commissioners appointed to run the city.
They also lobbied the opposition Labor Party to reinstate the city government and institute fixed three-year terms if elected Ord : 37—8. Recognizing economic and demographic changes in the city, the new city government extensively reworked the Strategy Plan to produce a comprehensive, detailed policy document that outlines goals and strategies for transforming Melbourne.
He appears at multiple points in this story, and his longevity and commitment to making Melbourne a place where people want to spend time constitute a crucial strand of the liveability focus that has been developed. At the start of the s, the City began comprehensive internal management reforms, aimed at making decision-making processes within its executive more streamlined, consensual, and efficient.
This new structure supported the earlier efforts of elected members to create a more unified and productive organization through the selective recruitment of executive officers and collaborative planning processes focused on urban design and social inclusion priorities Ord This has resulted in consultants having a significant influence on urban design and local government policies throughout Australia Stevenson : Insider accounts of Melbourne city planning highlight the important role that international consultants played in both the development of the and Strategy Plans Ord : 36, 39 and in demonstrating the significance of pedestrianization and public seating in how people behave in the city Gehl : 22; see also Jones : Growing concerns about environmental sustainability and the ideas of urban activist Jane Jacobs have also been important international influences in Melbourne.
Unsurprisingly, the development of Melbourne as a city has thus been influenced by global trends and events. Along with those already discussed, immigration and related policies have significantly shaped the vibrant culture of Melbourne. The traditional owners of the land, the people of the Kulin nation, were largely displaced by early settlers from England, Ireland, and Scotland.
National policymaking has also had an influence on the demographic make-up of Melbourne. The City of Melbourne has relished this increasing cultural diversity, epitomized in the resulting proliferation of festivals and restaurants with cuisine from many different cultural traditions. Thus, while the city and state government can lay claim to enabling some impressive changes in central Melbourne, their policies have been shaped, constrained, and complemented by a range of national and international contextual factors.
The new governance arrangements involved collaboration, negotiation, and compromise between the state and city governments, and significant and vocal non-government organizations. A sample of specific policy design processes are explored here to illustrate the different roles and approaches taken by these governmental actors.
The major strategic plans developed by the City of Melbourne between the mids and mids focused on making Melbourne a nicer place to live and visit, especially by improving public amenities and promoting residential development. The City of Melbourne Strategy Plan sits at the heart of the relatively consistent approach to urban planning policy taken by the local government despite the wide array of challenges and changes it faced.
Based on the Strategy Plan, the newly reinstated city government developed the Strategy Plan over three years in the early s. Their successors further extended and updated this policy with Directions — Melbourne City Council There was a focus on opportunities for social interaction with the full spectrum of society, and self-expression in cultural and recreational activities.
Ord : It specified detailed objectives in each of the key areas it p. New for the report was an outline of actions to be undertaken either by the Victorian State Government, or jointly by state and city governments.
The City of Melbourne was thus ahead of its time, implementing strategic planning and reporting regimes that were to be mandated through NPM reforms applied to local government in Australian states from the late s to early s.
New provisions later set forth in state legislation were accordingly designed to make local authorities more accountable and more responsive to community wishes, notably through mechanisms such as strategic planning and performance statements, as well as sometimes broadening the scope of local government activity Aulich Throughout the s and beyond, the city government actively incorporated and promoted pedestrianization as a key plank in liveability.
It also illustrates a more grounded approach to measurement that ultimately drives city planning, in contrast to the external validation offered by international indices of liveability. The State Government also emphasized good urban design as it developed and released its own plans for central Melbourne during this period, although it focused more on economic development.
It aimed to make Melbourne a more internationally attractive city, particularly focusing on its strengths and opportunities as an appealing centre for big business, through initiatives such as building the Melbourne Exhibition Centre and a new Museum of Victoria, and beginning the Docklands developments. Shaped by input from community activists and urban design professionals, it functioned not only as an important policy document to guide decisions and design in the administration but was also used as a manifesto in city government election campaigns and as a vehicle for bringing together state and local government actors and other key stakeholders.
Gardner and Clark : suggest that the Strategy Plan was successful where it outlined policy and planning targets that were achievable. Adams confirms the importance of targets, such as 8, new residences, for keeping politicians and planners accountable Adams and Dovey : He also suggests that it was strong alignment and collaboration between city and state planners that enabled the policy changes that led to Melbourne becoming more liveable Adams and Dovey : The different policy documents developed by successive state and city governments demonstrate tensions between these two levels of government over the p.
Local community and stakeholder groups, in turn, fought for different visions of how and where the city would develop. Each government proposed focusing on development in different parts of the city in their central policy documents.
In the s, however, the tug of war between the state and city governments resulted in both parties giving much more attention to the central city than in preceding decades. Both parties had comprehensive, well-funded plans to redevelop the city, and both agreed on key areas to be funded. The policy consensus was that something had to be done.
Over time, the City appears to have taken on the role of managing smaller-scale urban design and infrastructure projects, focused on how people use the city, while the state government has retained responsibility for large-scale projects that define what people come to the city for. This policy was coordinated by the city government and supported by the state Department of Planning.
However, its initial mechanisms to implement this policy were not successful and it was not until the property market crashed in the late s that the subsequent empty commercial space provided an opportunity to realize this vision Adams and Dovey : —7. Postcode provided financial incentives and technical and capital works support to developers proposing to build thirty or more residential units. These incentives were combined with a media strategy to promote the advantages of living in the city.
At its heart was a demonstration building conversion project, where the City, working with industry partners, converted vacant floors of a historic building into apartments. The policy is credited with bringing redundant buildings back into use as apartments, helping the City meet its fifteen-year target p. An unanticipated side effect, however, was that, as rents increased and residential property investment became more attractive, low-income residents were forced out of the central city Adams and Dovey : A connected policy development was the transformation of Swanston Street, which similarly illustrates both tensions and collaboration between government actors, residents, and other stakeholders.
Swanston Street has been the site of prolonged debate and divergent policies between state and city governments over the past three decades. Early experimentation led to implementation that was later legitimated through external awards and changing attitudes and behaviours. Inspired by an international example shared by a young designer in the Ministry of Planning, the state government embarked on an experimental initiative in to show what was possible, while tensions between government departments and media criticism prevented more substantial change at the time.
A massive consultation then effectively identified practical implementation needs. Local and global legitimating factors have contributed to the enduring effects of the shared vision promoted by administrators, planners, and activists in the p. Over several decades, globally circulating ideas, indices, and consultants have provided inspiration, information, and external validation. It is remarkable that the city government, in spite of all the pressures and changes outlined above, managed a consistent approach to urban design and planning during this period.
The success that we have focused on in this chapter is a story about the changing governance arrangements that have reshaped central Melbourne. This story analyses the combination of state and city government policies and strategies over more than three decades. The increased capacities of state government reduced the formal capacity of the city government, but also gave it licence to do p. Do you want international student news, competitions and helpful articles sent to your inbox weekly?
Australian culture. Skip to content Search. Melbourne is one of the most liveable cities in the world Currently, Melbourne is currently the second-most liveable city in the world and the most liveable in Australia! Step 1 of 3. Sign up to our newsletter. A business An educational provider Other. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Thank you!
0コメント