Australian Cities – Globally Competitive But Can They Stay There?

The recent appointment of Jamie Briggs as the Minister for Cities and the Built Environment sends a strong message that our Federal leaders finally recognise that our cities are an essential ingredient in driving Australia’s economic and social prosperity.

Our cities are home to our most valuable capital – human capital. Almost 80% of the Australia’s population live in our major cities and over 60% live in Australia’s five largest cities alone – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. Australia’s strong population growth is projected to continue into the future, with the ABS’s medium projection estimating that Australia will grow to just over 30 million people by 2031. The majority of this growth is expected to occur in and around Australia’s capital cities.

Australia’s cities generate the majority of the country’s GDP, and also house much of the nation’s key economic infrastructure, such as ports and airports and provide the majority of Australia’s jobs. Australia’s economic structure is changing rapidly as we move away from agriculture, manufacturing, and resources to a more service orientated economy that is heavily biased to cities.

Australian cities are among the fastest-growing in the developed world and on most major economic and livability rankings fight well above their weight. According to the latest Forbes Most Influential Cities Rankings^[1], Sydney tied with Beijing as the eighth most influential city in the world, the 2015 Global Financial Centre Index^[2] ranked Sydney 15th and Melbourne 27th while the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2015 Global Livability Ranking^[3] ranked Melbourne 1^st, Adelaide 5^th, Sydney 7^th and Perth 8^th.

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