Cities worlds apart on climate and population

A new survey of key city leaders finds critical differences between Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth on tackling climate change, reducing social inequality and managing population growth.

Nearly a third of respondents from Melbourne considered it likely the city’s economic performance would worsen in the next two years compared with no one in Perth. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

City leaders in Melbourne are more concerned than their Perth counterparts over tackling climate change but less worried about managing looming population and demographic changes, a new survey finds.

The Melburnians were four times more likely than Brisbane city leaders to consider reducing inequality as a key challenge, the study by property consultancy Urbis finds.

Urbis’s 2022 National City Leaders Survey finds leaders across the country are more optimistic about the near-term economic performance of their cities than about addressing social ­issues such as housing affordability and broader inequality.

“While 43 per cent of leaders expect economic outcomes to improve … only 22 per cent of city leaders expect social outcomes for urban dwellers to improve, with 30 per cent expecting conditions to worsen,” the report finds.

More Perth leaders were bullish about their city’s economic future than those in Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney. Nearly a third of respondents from Melbourne considered it likely the city’s economic performance would worsen in the next two years compared with no one in Perth.

“No doubt this reflects the profound impact of Covid-19 and Melbourne having spent more days in lockdown than any other city in the world,” the report says.

Sydney and Melbourne leaders were also less optimistic than their Brisbane and Perth counterparts about whether their cities would perform better on social ­issues, with just 6 per cent of leaders from Sydney expecting improvement compared with 27 per cent of those from Perth.

Again, Covid played its part, the report says.

“The extent and severity of Covid-19 lockdowns in our major cities, and the impact this had on amplifying already entrenched social and economic inequalities, may have influenced perceptions.”

 

The report, which gathered quantitative and qualitative data from 140 top ranking public and private sector executives, found broad agreement that maintaining economic growth and competitiveness was the biggest challenge faced by big cities, but there were marked differences across jurisdictions on other measures.

Just 10 per cent of respondents from Brisbane said reducing inequality was one of their city’s three biggest future challenges, compared with 40 per cent of city leaders from Melbourne.

While 27 per cent of Perth city leaders included tackling climate change among the three biggest challenges, it was more than ­double in Sydney (60 per cent) and Melbourne (61 per cent).

And managing population growth and demographic change was considered a far higher priority in Perth (73 per cent put it among the top three challenges) compared with Melbourne (39 per cent.)

More than two-thirds of leaders (70 per cent) identified housing affordability and access as the leading factor contributing to inequality.

“In Australia today, the richest 20 per cent have almost 100 times the wealth of the bottom 20 per cent and our cities play a critical role in reinforcing those divides through disparities in access to work, affordable housing and other essential ingredients that lead to better living standards,” Urbis chief economist Richard Gibbs said.

Urbis’s report argues cities will need to diversify into high growth sectors and invest in critical skills and infrastructure to remain economically competitive to ensure future prosperity and drive the economy forward.