A Plenitude, Plethora or Plague of Plans? State Strategic Plans, Metropolitan Strategies and Infrastructure Plans

Abstract

In the last five years, planning strategies have been released for each of the five mainland capital cities in Australia, linked in most cases with State strategic plans and infrastructure strategies. This paper examines the relationship between the plans and strategies in South Australia and New South Wales. These two States have probably the most complete and current suite of all three documents, although other States such as Queensland have recent proposals of this kind, sometimes closely linked. The question arises as to how appropriate each document is in its own right, how effectively it supports or reflects the others, and how robust it may be in dealing with uncertainty and the transition towards sustainability. The paper examines the characteristics of each document, the ways they are linked, and how they affect each other. The paper concludes that each type of plan or strategy is useful in charting a direction for change, but each is subject to changes of government, in community attitudes and environmental circumstances. Moderate modifications to them and their relationships might improve the longevity and effectiveness of such instruments.