NGAA - National Growth Areas Alliance

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What does NGAA want to achieve

Improved Outcomes for our Communities

NGAA wants to close the gap between growth areas and metropolitan averages.

This means:

Improved access to employment opportunities through measures such as:

  • assisting young people to stay in school
  • providing increased tertiary education opportunities in the outer suburbs
  • encouraging access to a greater diversity of employment opportunities for residents in these areas such as locating government offices in outer metropolitan locations.

Better personal mobility through:

  • improved public transport for residents in outer suburbs to access jobs and services. This would support increased employment participation, improve productivity and help reduce the environmental impact of emissions from cars.

More local community services including programs which:

  • have a strong emphasis on prevention and early intervention
  • strengthen relationships, develop skills and support parents, children and young people
  • provide intensive and coordinated support for vulnerable and at risk families
  • are flexible and can be tailored to the needs of each community.

More diverse housing through measures such as:

  • planning requirements and incentives to ensure that there is a mixture of housing tenures, sizes and prices. This would support a diverse population and assist in ensuring more sustainable outer urban communities.

National Urban Policy

NGAA believes that the scale of the infrastructure required to support the growth and environmental protection requires an all of Government approach.

In a Policy sense this means:

  • A National Urban Policy that recognises, acknowledges and supports the role of growth areas as they relate to local and regional catchments and to CBD's.

    The Policy should include a section on growth areas that highlights the need to plan for:

    • economic development of greater metropolitan areas
    • outer metropolitan activity centres
    • diverse employment in close proximity to where people live
    • regional community facilities
    • standards for infrastructure and services and their implementation
  • A requirement that implementation plans such as the South East Queensland Implementation Plan accompany strategic land use plans
  • A requirement that Departments plan for population growth and include estimates for servicing it in budget proposals.

A New Deal on Partnerships, Coordination and Delivery

Growth area Councils want a new deal on sharing of responsibilities across Federal, State and Local Government. This includes a new deal on funding, coordination and delivery of infrastructure and services.

The NGAA is able to provide a range of data and research to inform government policy and seeks to work with the Australian Government on an appropriate structure for such a partnership.

Improved Funding Allocations

NGAA is seeking more equitable funding methodologies that ensure the needs of communities in fast-growing areas are met now and in the future. Funding options include:

  • New state grants programs for funding infrastructure and services in growth areas;
  • Specific Federal programs for leveraging investment across tiers of government (such as a refined Building Better Cities Program);
  • Direct Federal provision of regional level infrastructure in growth areas via Infrastructure Australia; and
  • Interest free loans for growth area infrastructure.