The Suburban Alliance budget submission to the Prime Minister in March called for a program of Suburban Renewal led by a Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure Ministry to respond to the COVID-19 crisis and new trends emerging for suburban work locations.
How would it work?
The simplest answer is to establish a unit within the Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure Ministry, devoted to suburban and regional renewal.
A substantial forward budget would be required and offered on a partnership basis to local and state governments where projects or suburban or regional renewal are identified.
Before committing to specific projects, basic business case benchmarks should be met.
These could be developed in conjunction with, or via, Infrastructure Australia.
This has all been done before. Under Hawke-Keating it was called “Building Better Cities.” It can be done again. Call it instead “Building Better Suburbs.”
On the 23 July 2020, the Suburban Alliance recieved a response from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications
