Australian cities rate highly internationally on liveability and well-being indices. State and metropolitan governments are keen to promote the liveability of their cities as a means of attracting mobile capital, skilled labour and tourists. An examination of the liveability-environmental sustainability nexus, however, suggests that Australia’s capital cities have gained their high liveability ratings while having...

Grattan Institute's second Cities program investigates decision making in eight of the world’s most successful cities, and asks what governance arrangements accompanied their broad-based improvement. Every city has a different story, but among these differences a number of common themes emerged. These included the importance of public engagement, consistent strategic direction, cross-sectoral collaboration, and regional...

The most important characteristic of a city is whether it meets the needs of its residents, both material and psychological. Despite the fact that these needs are central to our lives, they are often at the periphery of conversations about the future of Australian cities. With these criteria in mind, it is clear that while...

Although all Australian schools have systems of evaluation and development in place, they clearly aren’t working. Teachers believe that the systems are broken, according to this report.