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Repeating history, repeating failure: a study of the sustainability-related urban planning policy reforms in NSW, Australia

ABSTRACT Australia is one of the most urbanised countries, and its states and territories are facing significant environmental threats. This paper argues that urban planning authorities in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) repeatedly abandon their carefully crafted urban policies that could have improved environmental sustainability. This qualitative research analyses two cases, nearly two decades apart, to support its argument. In 2021, the NSW planning department developed significant reforms to planning laws, namely the Design and Place State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP). This set of proposed rules would have made planning, placemaking, and communities more liveable and sustainable. In April 2022, the proposed policy was suddenly and unexpectedly scrapped. The recent abandonment of a well-thought-out planning policy proposal in NSW is not unprecedented. It is a case of history repeating itself. In 2003, the PlanFirst sustainability-related planning reforms that had been developed over several years were abandoned similarly. This paper uses the path dependency theory to explore the repetition and discarding of sustainability-related planning reforms. This paper shows how politics and policy making in NSW have neglected significant policies designed to improve environmental sustainability and liveability following property developer lobbyists’ influence.

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Realising transitions for urban regeneration through statutory planning: the case of greyfield precinct renewal in suburban Melbourne

ABSTRACT The compact city agenda aims to deliver sustainable future urban form. However, as with all planning, there is contestation. While built form and housing have primacy, cities need space for hard and soft infrastructural systems, including natural systems that, until recently, have been taken for granted but are diminishing through poorly planned densification. Nowhere is this more evident than in the suburbs, where lot-by-lot redevelopment is significantly reducing open space and tree canopy. Infill developments are not producing the benefits expected from compact cities; they are increasing strain on the grey, blue, and green infrastructure. This paper highlights limited intent in local planning regulations to promote anything other than business as usual, which, in the Australian context, is single lots becoming 2–4 subdivisions. While planning schemes can regulate negative externalities, they do not consider this when taken as a whole, across a redeveloped neighbourhood predominantly consisting of housing, and are not using the redevelopment opportunities to build a more resilient future for local areas. This paper builds on the Australian greyfield literature by showing how statutory amendments can promote precinct scale development, working across multiple lots to deliver housing concurrently with greater levels of amenity for existing and future residents.

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Travel behaviour of shared mobility users: a review of empirical evidence

ABSTRACT In recent decades, shared mobility has gained prominence as a sustainable alternative in transport, yet a comprehensive understanding of its effects on travel behaviour remains limited. This paper provides a narrative review of quantitative empirical studies, focusing on car-sharing and bike-sharing, and revisits the magnitude of the effects on four indicators: public transport use, active transport use, auto dependence, and auto ownership. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal perspectives are considered, examining variances in trip characteristics. Shared mobility users tend to rely less on private vehicles and increase cycling, with varying effects on transit use and walking. Car-sharing typically replaces private vehicles for non-commuting trips, while bike-sharing mainly competes with rather than complements public transport, especially for shorter commutes. The longitudinal effects of shared mobility appear more limited than those observed in cross-sectional analyses, indicating that shared mobility can potentially lead to a positive trend in travel mode shifts over time, albeit slowly. Additionally, this study highlights differences in shared mobility outcomes between Australia and other global contexts, exploring potential reasons for these discrepancies. Integrating shared mobility and other transport paradigms requires long-term strategies to shape travel behaviour towards multimodality, offering a continuum of choices covering most daily trips without private vehicles.

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The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the music industries of Brisbane and an evaluation of the policy response

ABSTRACT This paper examines the effects of policy responses to the COVID-19 global pandemic on Brisbane’s music industries. The methods used for data collection combined a review of policy documents at different levels of government, an on-line questionnaire with music workers, and semi-structured interviews with musicians and music industry workers to understand the impacts of COVID-19 mitigation strategies on various music industries, as well as to examine any opportunities that may have arisen from this disruptive event. The primary questions informing this research are thus what were the impacts of Queensland’s zero COVID policy on the music industries of Brisbane, and what can be learned for future music industry-related policy interventions? Based on data collected from an on-line survey and on semi-structured interviews with musicians and professionals from the Brisbane music scene, we conclude that while the QLD state government response to the crisis recognised to an extent the importance of Brisbane’s music industries, policy responses were not always seen as equitable in relation to other industries and that policy responses to future disruptive events would be better served with greater consultation and consistency. Practitioner pointers COVID-19 planning and policy responses lacked consistency, in particular there was a perception of inequality in the audience numbers available to the local music industries versus the sports industry. Policy responses should have been more consistent, or the perceived lack of consistency should have been better explained. In order to better understand the effects of policy and planning on grassroots local music industries, a greater degree of government consultation is required. Music industries need to find ways in which greater industry vcollectiveness can be achieved to improve advocacy efforts.

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A. J. Veal and Awais Piracha: meeting the need for a rational basis for open space and recreation planning in new high density residential areas: the Recreational Activity Benchmark model, Australian Planner, 2022. A rebuttal

ABSTRACT Veal and Piracha propose an alternate approach to planning recreation provision in new high-density residential areas (NHDA’s) of Australian cities: the RAB or ‘Recreation Activity Benchmark’ (Veal and Piracha 2022). Sydney is used as a case study. This paper contends that the methodology has a range of substantive deficiencies and ignores other well-established planning approaches that have been developed, tested and refined through hundreds of plans prepared by in-house and consulting leisure planners over the past 50 years in Australia and detailed in a range of texts and planning manuals. In applying the Recreation Activities Benchmark (RAB), provision of physical leisure resources is made on the basis of ‘averaging’ the recreation activities that people pursue to determine what facilities they need in the wider city in which the NHDA occurs. The averages are then applied to a projected NHDA population. This review questions the lack of a philosophical and planning basis of the RAB; the need for the RAB methodology; what ‘average’ means in terms of recreation participation; how the average is ‘adjusted’ if sufficient space is not available; the fact that the average used in the methodology has been selected solely to avoid possible legal action by developers, and the fact that the RAB is no different to a provision ‘standard’, given the reliance on data that has inherent shortcomings. The rebuttal concludes by questioning the need for the methodology.

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‘Call for a practical solution’: reframing of community engagement for urban waterways governance

ABSTRACT Melbourne is renowned for its urban waterways management. With the introduction of the Healthy Waterways strategy 2018–2028, decision-makers aimed to involve the community more collaboratively. However, the reality of doing so is complex, and outcomes have not always been as intended. We identify three dilemmas that limit the effectiveness of community collaboration, drawing on a study of how communities were involved in the governance of the Melbourne waterways of Merri Creek and Moonee Ponds Creek. The dilemmas are that: resources are stretched; a lack of focus and unclear responsibilities can undermine efforts; and the effectiveness of engagement practices is uncertain and depends on context. We argue that these dilemmas make community collaboration challenging and limit its potential for co-benefits. However, there is an opportunity to develop shared visions and goals that motivates ongoing action, drawing on the strengths of the community and choosing methods more purposefully with consideration of constraints, ensuring that the aims are both achieved and legitimate. This allows for the integration of fragmented resources, capacities, roles, and benefits into a central vision, fostering collaborative principles of transparency, responsibility, ownership, and accountability.

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