South East Queensland (SEQ) is a fast growing, mega-city region in Australia and innovative metropolitan regional planning and collaborative governance arrangements have been evolving in the region since the early 1990s. This report presents the results of recent research on the evolution of collaborative governance in SEQ.
The report outlines a broad concept of collaborative governance involving governments, the community and the private sector. However, the focus of the research is on the collaboration of state and local governments in metropolitan planning in SEQ between 1990 and 2010. The report outlines the process by which governance and planning in SEQ evolved, by agreement of all the parties, from a voluntary model to a statutory model of metropolitan planning. It explores the collaborative dynamics of the partnership and identifies some implications for ongoing governance and planning in SEQ and in other states and multi-level metropolitan regions.
The report concludes by highlighting that SEQ provides evidence of positive outputs and outcomes from collaborative governance. It also provides guidance for improving arrangements between state and local governments in metropolitan planning in Australia and elsewhere. Collaboration requires a greater recognition by state governments of interdependence between themselves and local governments and the potential benefits and legitimate role that local governments play. It also requires local governments to organise themselves in forums to deliver unified positions on important issues to the metropolitan forum and to the state government. Overall, collaborative governance arrangements require time and resources for joint policy positions to be developed by discussion and agreement. The benefits of this investment will be a high level of commitment to the implementation of metropolitan policies by governments, involved organisations and individuals that will endure.