Melbourne 2030 is a fascinating document with some excellent points and some very poor points.

From what I can gather after taking to people working with it and against it, it appears that it is actually a very thorough and thought out document. The recent criticisms of the document (see link) also seem a little careless to me. From what I can gather, the argument is basically that Melbournians just want urban sprawl. It also struck me as very odd that the opposition’s response was ‘it’s a top-down strategy the people don’t own’. That doesn’t sound very ‘Liberal’ and one only has to think back to Kennet to see why. Again, it seems that the Libs are attacking Labor from the left.

Until now, the criticisms I’ve heard about 2030 have come from the environment movement. That there is an over reliance on freeways and a lack of expansion of the public transport network. While environmental concerns have been taken into account they have not been to the extent that they should have been.

Urban sprawl is an ecological disaster. So for this new report to come out in favour of further urban sprawl and ’satellite’ cities strikes me as absurd.

The ‘top-down’ criticism also disserves some attention. Val Plumwood (one of Australia’s greatest thinkers) certainly argues that there is a massive need for what she describes as ‘Environmental Culture’. Where as a society we actually internalise environmental issues. This can be achieved through either a top-down or democratically from the bottom up. The latter is far more sustainable so I’d love to see that happen but the reality is that the structures of the society prevent the development of this ‘Environmental Culture’ so structural reform is needed and this largely entails a massive democratisation of the country and for communities to be in control of their own destinies (the two are dependent on each other).

So reluctantly, it seems that at top-down approach in this instance is needed. That said, I would like to see a much greater involvement of environmental groups in the discussion.

I can’t help but feel that if governments start to legislate heavily on environmental issues it will eventually be internalised by the population because we will be forced to think about these issues a lot more. Again, I’m not overly comfortable with this idea but I can see it making a difference and something must be done ASAP.