Policy Publications & Submissions Media & Commentary

Aerial Dusk Sydney
Hassell_Parramatta_ 007
traffic1
Wharf
City North

Taskforces

Our members are our greatest assets. As part of our new approach we want to maximise the impact of our most valuable resource, the skills, experience and energies of our members, in everything we do. Member-led Taskforces have been established around our core priorities for 2013. The Taskforces are a focus for policy development, networking and advocacy – and help us turn our policy development into changes on the ground in the way this City works.

 

Taskforce 1: Planning reform, housing and city governance: Managing the growth of Sydney

Chair: Lucy Turnbull AO.

A key priority for the taskforce is influencing the ongoing review of planning in NSW. Our initial submission to the NSW government review was well received and our submission to the Review Issues Paper went in on March 2, 2012. We will continue to work with the Department of Infrastructure and Planning throughout the review process. We see our role as not just to provide a critique of failings but to help supply practical solutions. Our current focus for 2013 is responsing to the Draft Metropolitan Strategy for Sydney, the Planning White Paper and response to Local Government Reform. 

Outputs to date:

  • Initial submission to the review of the NSW planning system, 2012
  • ABC radio interview on the issues in the submission, 2012
  • Discussion with Ron Dyer, Co-Chair of the review process, 2012
  • Meeting with Sam Haddad, Director General of the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure on the opportunities to improve the planning system, 2012
  • Second submission to the Planning Review and press release, 2012

 

Taskforce 2: Focusing on competitiveness & productivity: Financial and professional services

Chair : Michael Rose.


Update: The terms of reference for this group are currently being finalised with a view to having the first formal meeting in April. The Committee has recruited strongly from these sectors in recent months, with JP Morgan , Amber Infrastructure, HSBC , Commonwealth Bank and Redbridge Grant Samuel joining and reinforcing our understanding of the key issues. The Committee in-house team has a capacity around the issues for finance and professional services and will service this Taskforce. Good relations have been formed already with the NSW Trade and Industry team, particularly around their emerging review of professional services in the State.

Outputs:

  • Our Chair was asked by the City for Sydney to give a key note speech welcoming a business delegation from the Chinese city of Chengdu to Sydney recently to celebrate the Year of the Dragon. The speech is attached.
  • Also, in February the Committee welcomed Rodd Simms, Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to one of its Perspectives Lunches. A briefing on Mr Simms’ speech is attached.
  • Future Outputs: Under this strand, the Committee is preparing a new version of ‘Golden Egg’ , which researched the impact of the Sydney economy on Australia as a justification for more public investment in its infrastructure. Accordingly we have asked SGS which, in December, issued its City Accounts report , to present the background to, and findings from the report to Committee members in March.
  • At least one Issues Paper will be produced by this Taskforce in 2012 and we are targeting July.
  • As we are as a Committee interested in Greater Sydney we will be working with member Parramatta City Council’s economic development section on its promotional work around ‘Sydney’s second CBD’ in May. More detail to follow.

 

Taskforce 3: Liveability and loveability:
Protecting and enhancing the appeal of Sydney.

Chair: Sally Loane, Director of Media and Public Affairs, Coca Cola; Director, NSW Rugby Union.


Update: The team is currently preparing the term of reference for this taskforce and will be inviting members to an agenda setting meeting in April. The Taskforce will rely on the considerable knowledge and experience of the many members it has in the relevant sectors, from across the public, private and not for profit sectors.

Future outcomes: we plan an Issues Paper from this Taskforce , targeted at July 2012.


Taskforce 4: Governance and Transport.

Chair: Phil Davies.

These were identified in our ground-breaking report, Global Sydney, as key risk factors to Sydney’s international standing .They will always be core issues for the Committee for Sydney Executive and team. While we now have a new in house capacity to develop policy around these key issues, we recognise that for topics such as these we will need to collaborate with other like-minded organisations with specialist knowledge and capacity. Where existing initiatives or organisations already provide effective vehicles for advancing causes we support, or have the same priorities as the Committee for Sydney, we will join forces and collaborate. There is not enough integration of effort in Sydney: our commitment to collaboration and integration is a core principle

One such collaboration has been with the Transport and Tourism Forum with which we organised a meeting on congestion issues in November 2011.