Nod to new uni in Melbourne's west

A COALITION government would encourage a new university in western Melbourne.

Greg Hunt

A COALITION government would encourage a new university in western Melbourne and produce 30-year plans and "liveabiltiy indices" to encourage better quality town planning across the biggest cities.

Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt said yesterday the Coalition in government would oversee creation of "integrated planning commissions", which will produce 30-year plans for each state capital.

"It wouldn't be a binding body and would have federal, state and local government representations," he said, adding political bipartisanship would be critical for their success so Opposition parties would not later renege.

Mr Hunt, who holds the Victorian seat of Flinders, said suggested establishment of a new university in Melbourne's west should be part of the city's future planning.

"Part of Melbourne's success is deep and long term planning," he said, arguing a "great university of Western Melbourne" made sense.

"Whether it's a new university or expansion of an existing one such as the University of Melbourne is entirely a matter for a competitive process," he added.

Speaking at the same forum about how to make cities more productive, Professor Henry Ergas warned against excessive investment in high density housing and rail infrastructure.

"There's nothing inherently undesirable about urban sprawl," he told the Securing the Future conference co-hosted by The Australian and the Melbourne Institute.

Professor Ergas argued urban growth boundaries pushed up the price of land, made low-cost housing scarce and fanned corruption of local government planning decisions.

Professor Ergas also argued roads were the most effective and cost-effective method of transport, pointing out the cost of rail transport in Australia was a third to a half more expensive than overseas.

"The idea public transport is good and roads are bad is a myth," he said, suggesting subsidies to rail were often "captured by unions and managers" rather than improving public transport.

Jane-Frances Kelly, a program director at the Grattan Institute for Cities, presented evidence that the stock of housing in Melbourne (and most Australian cites) was out of step with what Australians actually desired.

Her research showed 48 per cent would choose a detatched house but 72 per cent of the housing stock was detached.

" Sydney's stock of housing does a better job of matching what its residents prefer but relatively little new stock had been built," she said.

Mr Hunt also said an Abbott government would also benchmark "liveabiltiy" across major cities.

"It's not right to compare Sydney with Adelaide's traffic for example," he said.

Mr Hunt also said the time had come to put overhead transmission wires underground.