Rethinking Growth: Addressing Inequality, Housing Pressure, and Urban Planning in Melbourne

Melbourne Series

Drinks with Dr Marcus Spiller & Peter Seamer AM

Hosted by Chris Gallagher

Dr Marcus Spiller: Melbourne’s planning policies are out of sync with forces shaping the economy.

Suburban expansion once served the metropolitan community well, but now threatens to become an engine of inequality and a drag on productivity. However, it’s difficult to change course in the way we build the city. Planning policies should focus more on connecting suburban communities to opportunity. This points to a renewed push for decentralisation and a different approach to transport planning, with a greater emphasis on buses. The required reforms and investments should be funded from development licence fees.

Peter Seamer AM - The single most pressing issue in planning for Melbourne today.

With Australia’s highest level of overall population growth (133,000 in 2024), new housing construction levels falling, rental housing increasingly expensive and scarce, homelessness rising by 24% between 2016 and 2021, and 43% of the total cost of a home being in government charges (Australia’s highest), Victoria has an urgent problem. Priority has to be given not only to policy initiatives (which the Government is doing) but funding areas critical to housing supply and moving away from some of the State’s current funding priorities.

We are delighted to welcome Dr Marcus Spiller and Peter Seamer AM to Melbourne Forum for this panel discussion, part of our new Melbourne Series.

Dr Marcus Spiller is a founding partner at SGS Economics & Planning Pty Ltd. He has more than 40 years’ experience in public policy analysis as an urban economist.

Holding degrees in urban planning and economics, Marcus’s expertise covers metropolitan planning and governance, housing policy, infrastructure funding and the productivity of cities and regions.

Although he has operated as an independent consultant for most of his career, Marcus has undertaken numerous secondments and part time appointments, which have expanded his understanding of policy making at all levels of government. Some of these assignments include lecturer in urban economics at Melbourne University, adviser to the Minister for Planning and Housing in Victoria and Senior Executive in the Queensland Department of Housing, Local Government and Planning. Marcus has also acted as a senior policy adviser in a range of international settings, including Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, China and Sri Lanka.

Marcus is a recognised leader within the Australian urban policy community. He is a past National President and Life Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia. His government appointments have included Board member at VicUrban, the Victoria State Government-owned land development company now called Development Victoria, and member of the Commonwealth Government’s former National Housing Supply Council and its current National Housing Supply and Affordability Council.

Marcus is a principal contributor and co-editor of two books covering metropolitan governance, and infrastructure funding and management.

Marcus is an honorary Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. 

Peter Seamer AM was the CEO of Federation Square during its construction and early operational phase from 2000 to 2005, managing the highly complex range of construction, funding, public relations and political issues involved.

Working with both Labor and Liberal governments, he was the CEO of the Victorian Planning Authority for a decade. During this time, he oversaw the design and planning of some sixty new suburbs in Melbourne’s growth areas, regional Victorian cities, and inner-city brownfield sites. For a time, he was additionally the CEO of Places Victoria, now Development Victoria.

He is passionate about the need to make our cities more equitable, efficient and liveable, as well as the overwhelming need to house all Victorians, despite the rapid population growth of our State. A particular interest is finding housing for those on the bottom rung of the socio-economic ladder and, accordingly, is on the board of a community housing association.

In response to these issues, he published Breaking Point: The Future of Australian Cities which critically investigated the challenges facing the growth of Australian cities, and the need to create truly polycentric Australian cities as they double in size in coming decades.

His service has been recognised by being made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to urban and regional planning and design, to public administration, and to local government.

In another instalment of our Melbourne Series, join our expert panel for this vital conversation about Melbourne's future.