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Former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has implored Melburnians to embrace high-rise, high-density living as the city\u2019s population races towards 9 million.<\/p>\n
But as de Blasio decried urban sprawl \u2013 constructing homes further away from city centres on urban fringes \u2013 as a \u201cmassive failure\u201d of the Western world, former Victorian premier Steve Bracks told The Age\u2019s Melbourne Assembly on Tuesday that it could be too late.<\/p>\n
![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/be5ada17631c7b8a8b9019946c13ef7326d3aff1.jpeg\")
Former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio argued for an end to urban sprawl at Tuesday\u2019s Melbourne Assembly event.Justin McManus<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the genie is already out of the bottle. We are already a sprawling city,\u201d Bracks said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we need is a hard full stop on the city. We should be protecting the green wedges \u2026 [and] encouraging our planning scheme development at activity centres around our transport hubs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Held at Federation Square, the second day of the inaugural forum brought together industry leaders, decision-makers and the community. As well as the pillar of shaping the city, it focused on education and innovation, with experts discussing how to attract and keep the brightest minds and commercialise research breakthroughs.<\/p>\n
Related Article Melbourne\u2019s planning policies were at the centre of the debate, ahead of next month\u2019s state election in which Labor\u2019s \u201cactivity centres\u201d are on the ballot, with the Coalition vowing to abolish the zones where developers are allowed to bypass local planning rules to build high-rises up to 20 storeys.<\/p>\n The government implemented the plan in response to surging house prices and population growth, with activity centres spread across the city near transport hubs in a bid to shift population growth away from the urban fringes into established suburbs.<\/p>\n Bracks pointed out that Melbourne was five times the size of New York, and suggested that instead of imitating de Blasio\u2019s hometown, increased density should be targeted in the activity centres.<\/p>\n The former New York City mayor, however, urged authorities to \u201creverse\u201d sprawl and build \u201cas tall as you can go\u201d closer to the CBD, backed by careful planning to include amenities and services.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality of people\u2019s quality of life, living far from the centre is going to get harder and harder,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople want culture and connection more than ever. You must embrace height and density. You must turn away from sprawl.\u201d<\/p>\n It may be politically easier to sprawl, but it is more costly to society, Grattan Institute chief executive Aruna Sathanapally told the forum\u2019s panel on shaping the city. Where developers invest in the construction of homes on urban fringes, the cost of supplying residents with access to jobs, and infrastructure for water, electricity and roads is straddled to state governments, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t accept that it\u2019s cheaper if you actually take those costs into account to sprawl. It can be much more efficient to use infrastructure densely in your existing cities,\u201d said Sathanapally, who pointed out that the handbrake on density was the rising cost of construction and poor construction productivity.<\/p>\n Architect Sarah Lynn Rees also advocated for greater density \u2013 but in a way that connects people to their homes and neighbourhoods, and factors in the needs of families.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re putting people in white boxes and expecting them to live a life of thriving within their community, but they\u2019re so disconnected from it, and they don\u2019t have the space that they need,\u201d Rees said.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used his address to reveal Victoria would receive $350 million in federal funding<\/a> to connect \u201clast mile infrastructure\u201d, particularly basic utilities, to new housing in the state\u2019s growing suburbs and regions.<\/p>\n In the face of criticisms of urban sprawl, Albanese nodded to the outer suburbs including Frankston, Point Cook, Dandenong, Melton, Sunbury and Cranbourne as the \u201cpowerhouse\u201d of Melbourne.<\/p>\n Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece said density was a key plank of the City of Melbourne\u2019s 25-year city plan, including its target of building 120,000 new homes in the next 25 years. He pointed to Fishermans Bend, Macaulay, Arden and West Melbourne as having \u201chuge tracts of land\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMelbourne is blessed in that it has plenty of underutilised land that can be developed very close to the city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese areas can accommodate our population growth in sustainable, high-density suburbs with plenty of green space.\u201d<\/p>\n But he said it was crucial major infrastructure was delivered by the state government based on long-term strategic planning and independent advice, not the \u201cshort-term political considerations and electoral maps\u201d that influenced projects such as the Suburban Rail Loop and the West Gate Tunnel.<\/p>\n \u201cI would urge the next government, whoever it is at the end of November, to reverse the decision to abolish Infrastructure Victoria and preserve its independence,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cAny proposed major project should be subject to independent analysis \u2026 the government of the day can then select from this menu. If it\u2019s not on the menu, then you can\u2019t go committing billions of dollars, leaving it to future generations to pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n The education and innovation debate was kicked off by Professor Marek Tesar, the faculty of education dean at the University of Melbourne, the presenting partner for Melbourne Assembly.<\/p>\n The internationally recognised scholar in early childhood education asked the audience to consider who the future Melbourne was being designed for, pointing out that a four-year-old living here today would by 2080 have experienced more than half a century of the decisions being discussed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to ask the four-year-olds,\u201d he said, urging leaders to consider the views of children who refused to \u201caccept that the world must remain effectively as it is\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d love to see Melbourne develop a network of youth innovation hubs connected to schools, libraries, universities and neighbourhoods across the city,\u201d Tesar added. \u201cPlaces where all young people could work with mentors on real problems: biodiversity, disability access, loneliness, robotics, transport, housing, climate change … not just classroom exercises.\u201d<\/p>\n Doherty Institute director Professor Sharon Lewin took up the theme with her insights into how Melbourne can become the destination of choice for the world\u2019s best researchers and innovators.<\/p>\n Lewin, who runs the world-renowned biomedical research hub in the Parkville precinct, spoke about what could be learnt from Australia\u2019s past and the way her parents were welcomed from war-torn Europe as survivors of the Holocaust.<\/p>\n \u201cThe great cities of the future will compete for many things: for investment, for technology, for companies. But above all, they will compete for people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Related \u201cTalent will go somewhere. We need to welcome that talent \u2026 Just as Australia did all those years ago for my parents.\u201d<\/p>\n Lewin also argued for a more comprehensive effort to achieve bigger economic gains from Melbourne\u2019s research capability. \u201cWe are really good at discovery. We\u2019re not always that good at what happens next,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Melbourne Assembly will be held from October 19 to October 21. More information is available on the Melbourne Assembly website.<\/a><\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Prime](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2b3bfb7e9c26508de803cda21e91555e9f410e66.jpeg\")
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Melbourne Assembly.Justin McManus<\/p>\n![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/be460ee0dec05fc62dc2ee63bd8e21fe530a7436.jpeg\")
Photo: Matt Golding<\/p>\n![\"Melbourne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792510465_184_41f95722398116805e05f60533154af57319728790aefe8d5411a1a36abd2cba.jpeg\")
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