National performance framework to evaluate Australia's cities

The Australian Government has unveiled a new National Cities Performance Framework, to be developed in 2017, to assist in developing smart cities policy and allow the public to see how cities are progressing.

Announced by Assistant Minister for Cities Angus Taylor, the framework could be used to track progress, incentivise best practice and support long-term evidence-based policy development for Australia’s major cities. Taylor noted, “An important way we can improve the performance of our cities is by measuring their progress on key indicators — population growth, land use, society, the economy and the environment.

“Working with stakeholders, we will get a set of meaningful indicators which we will publish, allowing all Australians to see how well our major cities are working.

“This is not ranking city against city; it’s about encouraging individual cities to improve outcomes against benchmarks, to keep delivering new PBs, if you like. If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”

Committee for Sydney CEO Tim Williams said cities benchmarking would be a game changer for Australia.

“Benchmarking our cities can change the way we plan the infrastructure they need,” said Williams. “It will ensure in future that federal and state governments have a rational, agreed, evidence base on which to make investment decisions. It will put Australia at the top of the league table in terms of countries really getting their act together on cities management.”

The news has also been welcomed by the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC), which has long called for transparent and consistent indicators to be applied across Australia’s major cities. These benchmarking indicators should be developed in consultation with stakeholders, the council said, and encourage public debate about city performance.

“Cities are the economic drivers of the nation, providing jobs and housing over 60% of Australia’s population, along with economic, cultural and social exchange centres and a doorway to the world,” said ASBEC Executive Director Suzanne Toumbourou. “It is vitally important that the progress of Australia’s major cities is measured and reported, to drive best practice and enable better policymaking.”

Taylor also announced the formation of a new Cities Reference Group to assist with inquiries on City Deals and the publication of feedback on the government’s Smart Cities Plan, launched earlier in the year. Toumbourou said ASBEC “looks forward to participating in the government’s Cities Reference Group as a positive consultation mechanism across industry, government and the community”.