Our shining jewel is in need of a little polish

Sydney has always been a beautiful yet chaotic work in progress. As anyone who has ever renovated a house knows, the job is always bigger than first planned. Renovating an entire city forecast to grow by 2.6 million people in the next 30 years, will inflict pain. But standing still isn’t an option.

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THERE’S one thing most of us who live and work in the great basin surrounding Port Jackson agree on — Sydney really is the greatest city on earth.

The only problem is that we who reside here are so busy paying off mortgages, doing the school runs or crawling through the gridlock we call our road network, that we seldom get to enjoy the spoils.

Sydney visionary John Bradfield. Picture: State Library of NSW

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And it seems every year it all gets a little busier and a little more crowded.

Sydney has always been a beautiful yet chaotic work in progress. As anyone who has ever renovated a house, or just put in a kitchen, knows the job is always bigger — and usually more costly — than first planned.

So renovating an entire city forecast to grow by 2.6 million people, to 7.3 million, in the next 30 years, will inflict pain.

Daily Telegraph editor Ben English.

Standing still is not an option, however, and the government’s infrastructure projects, both planned and in progress, are helping to provide the city with the roads, railways, schools, hospitals and other essentials we so desperately need.

But the job is not quite done.

Since launching the Bradfield Oration four years ago The Daily Telegraph and its partners have set out to honour the spirit, courage and imagination of perhaps our city’s greatest visionary, John Bradfield.

After 12 years of stagnation following our epic Olympic Games, it was high time to talk about Sydney’s destiny.

Our infrastructure was in a sorry state. Our planning was confused and conflicted.

If there was a masterplan, nobody seemed to be clear on what it was.

The Bradfield Oration reset the agenda.

We exposed the gaps and challenged our leaders to inspire a new vision that would enshrine our place among the world’s great capitals.

Sydney is a city that everyone loves but living in it also inflicts some pain. Picture: John Grainger

A masterplan took shape, planning was overhauled with the creation of the Greater Sydney Commission and the greatest infrastructure program in the city’s history is now in full swing. But there are still kinks in the system — layers of red tape which increase delivery times, restrict creativity and increase costs not only for business but for government and taxpayers.

So we cannot afford to lose momentum.

With our partners, the Bradfield board of governors — chairman Tony Shepherd and members Lendlease group CEO and managing director Steve McCann, Transurban Group chief Scott Charlton, Carnival Australia executive chair Ann Sherry, Taylor Street Advisory principal Christopher Brown and University of Sydney vice chancellor Michael Spence — we will continue to agitate for a clear and exciting pathway for this wonderful city.