From white shoes to bold future: The neoliberalisation of local government in an Australian city?

Abstract

The City of Gold Coast in Australia has grown rapidly over the last half century to become the sixth largest city in the country and the second largest local government by population. It is seen by many to have become the epitome of neoliberal local government in Australia. This paper critically reviews this assumption of neoliberalisation through an analysis of the changing nature of governance in the city which draws on Saunders’ dual state thesis. This uses three dimensions: institutional structures, forms of politics, and ideological underpinnings, and considers a number of exemplary policies. It concludes that, apart from a brief period in which a set of Keynesian principles of intervention flourished, the city has indeed proceeded along a broadly neoliberal path but will face growing pressures in the future to develop programmes of social as well as economic intervention.