By Sophie Aubrey and Cara Waters
A road congestion levy should be introduced for visiting the CBD and businesses should support hybrid work or else face paying higher wages, according to the nation’s productivity chief, as Melburnians’ relationship with their city transforms.
Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood says reinventing the CBD from a place to house office workers on weekdays to a week-long destination for recreation and culture has become an imperative since the pandemic and will continue to be through to mid-century.
Wood is a keynote speaker for Friday’s M2050 summit, run by the City of Melbourne, at which business and community leaders will discuss priorities and aspirations for the CBD over the next 25 years.
Productivity Commissioner Danielle Wood argues the CBD should cement itself as a social hub as much as a place to work.Credit: Joe Armao
Among those to share their vision will be Premier Jacinta Allan, Opposition Leader Brad Battin, Victorian Governor Margaret Gardner and Lord Mayor Nick Reece.
Prominent Melburnians will also be among about 700 people participating in working groups through the day to concoct ideas, including restaurateur Chris Lucas, Queen Victoria Market chief executive Matt Elliott and State Library of Victoria boss Paul Duldig.
The Age spoke with Wood and fellow headline speaker National Gallery of Victoria director Tony Ellwood before the event to hear their ideas for the city’s future.
Wood says working-from-home is here to stay because well-managed hybrid work doesn’t dent productivity, so long as employees still converge in the office some days of the week.
Time-based road user charges are being touted as a tool to ease congestion and prompt more considered use of public transport.Credit: Joe Armao
She says a business that mandates working from the office full-time must be willing to compensate their employees better, by about 6 to 8 per cent.
“Hybrid [work] is going to be the sweet spot for a lot of organisations,” Wood says. “You get the same, if not slightly better productivity with hybrid work, while also bringing the benefits to your workers of flexibility, the time savings of the commute and a greater capacity to combine work and family.”
It’s why the CBD must continue to diversify on the road to 2050, Wood says, to cement itself as a meeting place for leisure through shopping, dining, nightlife and major events. “All those things act together to help promote the city into a destination.”
Wood says that transport systems need to be tweaked to improve and spread out the flow of people moving in and out of the city.
She says time-based road user charges should be on the table to ease congestion and prompt drivers to change when they visit, or to use other transport modes.
She also supports improving public transport with measures such as staggered work start times, more frequent services during the day and cheaper off-peak fares to encourage more off-peak travel.
Wood also says that increasing high-density residential development in inner and middle suburbs and making the planning system more efficient, both of which are central to the Allan government’s housing plans, will aid access to the CBD.
Ellwood agrees there is an ongoing shift towards the city serving as a social hub as much as a place to work.
“The urban planning that they’re talking about, the beautification of the city and the open mindedness of creative people more generally, I think, is a pretty exciting combination,” he says.
Ellwood believes Melbourne in 2050 will be a creative and collaborative city.
NGV director Tony Ellwood pictured last month during the Yayoi Kusama exhibition.Credit: Julian Kingma
“Melbourne has always treated creativity as not just a nice thing to do, but as an essential part of the power of the city,” he says. “We think differently than other cities, we support risk, and we see it as a core part of who we are.”
Unsurprisingly, Ellwood sees the NGV Contemporary, a gallery that is still in the design phase, as key to Melbourne’s future.
“We don’t see anything of this ambition anywhere in our part of the world,” he says.
Ellwood says the $1.7 billion space itself – together with the $45 million in new exhibits the NGV has acquired from its three Triennial exhibitions – will be transformative.
“We’re bringing in a whole new collection that the community can then start to really connect with,” he says.
“While that’s opening in four to five years’ time, and I know the vision in this forum is around 2050, it is a great launchpad and a great indication of community working together to create something that for the next three decades is going to be sharing the most relevant contemporary thinkers and practitioners that we have around the world.”
Ellwood’s ambition for Melbourne in 2050 is for the city to be seen as one of the globe’s top providers of cultural life. As for the gallery, his vision is for it to be among the top 10 in the world.
“I believe that will happen,” he says.
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