Encouraging first home owners to include regional Queensland in their plans with a $3000 boost to the federal grant was a welcome debut into the population policy debate by the state government, Local Government Association of Queensland president, Cr Paul Bell said today.
The LGAQ is in the process of establishing an Inquiry into Population Policy to be held in February and March next year with a view to handing down its report in June.
Cr Bell said the association was in discussions with one of the world’s leading urban demographers to chair the inquiry. Leading urban planning, infrastructure and finance expert, Alan Morton, had already accepted an invitation to be the inquiry’s secretary.
“We’ve been calling on the state government for a number of years to develop an urgently-needed population policy, but our pleas have fallen on deaf ears until today,” Cr Bell said.
“Other states, notably Victoria and South Australia, have developed policies to manage growth,” he said.
“Our inquiry is aiming to tackle the myriad of problems which will arise as Brisbane, as predicted, more than doubles its size by 2049.
“The inquiry will be seeking a wide range of presentations and submissions, including those of the state government. We are confident we can come up with recommendations on policy options and initiatives worthy of consideration by federal, state and local governments,” Cr Bell said.
The inquiry will be the fourth undertaken by the LGAQ. Its Roads and Transport Inquiry, chaired by Professor Alan Layton in 2002, was followed by a federal and state funding boost to south-east Queensland roads from $250 million to $2.4 billion annually by 2009/10.
