Canberra residents are seeking greater focus from the ACT Government to lift our city’s performance as a place to live, work, play – and stay, with the need for more affordable housing and better provision of infrastructure high on the agenda.
The Property Council of Australia today released the latest results from My City: The People’s Verdict – a national poll that tests views on the liveability of our cities.
It comes as the Property Council launches a new national campaign – Make My City Work – to shine a spotlight on cities and engage the community on how they grow.
“The good news for Canberra is that we rank as Australia’s second most liveable city according to residents,” ACT Executive Director Catherine Carter said today.
“This is the same position in the rankings as 2010. Our liveability score lifted by 1.3 points in that time, to a total liveability score of 63.6, just behind Adelaide which reported a total score of 64.0.”
The survey by Auspoll tested the views of 585 Canberra residents (among 5231 polled nationally) – benchmarking Canberra’s performance on 17 attributes that define good cities.
The survey revealed the most important attributes of a city to Canberrans are:
-
That it is a safe place for people and their property;
-
Having good healthcare;
-
Having good employment and economic opportunities; and
-
A good road network and minimal traffic, being clean, well-maintained and unpolluted and having a good range of quality affordable housing rounded out the top six.
Compared with other cities, Canberra performed particularly well on:
-
Having a good road network and minimal traffic (72% agree);
-
Being a safe place for people and property (69% agree);
-
Being clean, well-maintained and unpolluted (73% agree).
However, compared to other cities, Canberra performs relatively poorly in terms of:
Overall, Canberrans also rated the performance of the ACT Government quite poorly on a number of aspects. For example, most believe the Government is doing a poor job in terms of:
-
Making housing more affordable;
-
Setting a fair level of taxation when people buy or sell properties;
-
Supplying infrastructure to keep up with demand; and
-
Managing urban growth.
“Ahead of the election later this year, ACT Government has a golden opportunity to set in place policies which will make a positive difference to the liveability of our city, both now and into the future,” Ms Carter said.
“Work currently being undertaken by government to finalise the ACT Planning Strategy and to find better solutions to transport planning are critical pieces of work”.
“What is missing however is a long-term infrastructure plan for Canberra which draws a thread between demographics, land-use strategy and delivery mechanisms, overseen by a dedicated infrastructure authority.”
“New solutions around the provision of affordable housing will also need to be implemented. Without a doubt, taxation settings will be part of the solution. This includes putting the ACT on a better footing in terms of stamp duty, and dramatically recasting the Lease Variation Charge regime.” Ms Carter concluded.
For further information contact:
Catherine Carter, ACT Executive Director, 02 6248 6902 or 0412 330 079
