State Planning Conference

Ok so maybe I am a planning nerd. I recently attended the Victorian State Planning Conference in Ballarat and actually attended all the sessions - what's more I took notes!

Highlights included the Dean Hutton from the Curiosity Show, the Japanese Drummers at the Gala dinner

and meeting David Suzuki.

Highlights of the presentations:

Dr Dean Hutton (from the Curiosity Show!)
- If you want to control your future you have to know what has been past
- Until you do it - it is only an opportunity, transform the opportunity
into an action
- Preparation, Opportunity, Action
- Every Atom in the world has energy stored within it
And he showed various new technology materials that could revolutionise the
way products are made - a titanium wire that springs back into the shape
it was originally bent into when heat is applied, and an unbreakable
ceramic material...

Dr Terry Turney - CSIRO
- 1 nanometre = 1 billionth of a metre
- Nanotechnology has helped develop self-cleaning windows, concrete and
showers
- Bio-mimicry (abstraction of good design from nature) and nanotechnology
has helped develop non-reflective surfaces for glass based on the cicada's
wing, 'gecko' tape - sticky and holds lots of weight, sea cucumber inspired
adhesive that sets underwater in less than 10 seconds

Dr David Suzuki
- Foresight was the great survival attribute of early humans that
compensated for the lack of physical and sensory attributes that the animal
world had
- In 1992 there was a warning from hundreds of the world's top scientists
regarding environmental degradation, global warming, population issues etc
but no media took any notice - Why have we turned our backs on foresight?
The tragedy of New Orleans was predicted and measures outlined but
ignored...
- "Human brain is hard wired for order" it doesn't like chaos
- "Conventional economics is a form of brain damage" - Economics is a set
of values posing as a science with externalities removed from the equation
but externalities are the real world, the earth, the environment
- But then much science also removes natural interactions and processes
- We are using up the rightful legacy of our grandchildren
- We are hooked on growth and change, since the 1950s there has been
unprecedented and unsustainable growth
- We have passed the '59th minute' - it could be almost too late to save
the earth?
- We are a part of a single system - held together by air
- What we do to the air we do to ourselves

Andrew Bolt - "Journalist" Herald Sun
- thinks it is sad that people say that nature cannot spare water, wood,
ore for human use
- "our home is girt by sea is now 'our home is girt by urban planning
restrictions'
- asks if we should all live like people in Seoul or Hong Kong in 'chicken
coop' apartments?
- he doesn't see the impending doom - there is no black down descending
- "nothing is bad or good, but thinking makes it so"
- believes it is not healthy to follow green policies
- "we are pleasing nature gods but we are hurting people"
- the backyard is now so despised but that is what most of us have - why is
it 'beyond nature' to tend to a backyard and water it?

Shelley Penn - Associate Victorian Government Architect
- High quality buildings and public spaces engender pride, confidence and
well-being in our communities
- Good design, looks good longer and ages gracefully, and does cost more
upfront
- There is an unprecedented period of human possibility

Dr Ian McPhail - Commissioner of Environmental Sustainability
- Every plannner is an 'Environmental Planner
- There has been a 30% increase in carbon monoxide between 1970 and 2003
- Households are isolated, the modern age is unhealthy - less exercise and
more food
- Urban planning - environment is too dangerous and too unhealthy, today's
children have a lower life expectancy than their parents
- Sustainable solutions - innovation required - aim to reduce car travel
demand, enhance public transport
- There needs to be financial incentives and disincentives ie:
- salary packaging public transport tickets (instead of cars), offer tax
breaks for use of P.T.
- developers could have reduced fees if it is located close to P.T. and
services
- 'greener' cars could have lower taxes / fees

Jim Betts - Director of Public Transport
- P.T must be good and affordable, good is reliable and speedy
- Buses will increase services in Melbourne by 40% over next 4 years
- There is a need to update the technology for Melbourne's P.T. especially
trains
- A long lead time is needed for new infrastructure
- if council's have ideas or projects to integrate land use planning and
public transport planning - talk to Jim (or his department) they have $2 -
3 million available per project

"Are Planners Worth their Salt?" Debate
- Planners = megalomaniac, egomaniac, sex maniac
- Planners have an inflated idea of self importance
- But also low self-esteem?
- 'fat man walks in to a bar' - treatise on obesity, sustainable transport
and alcoholism
- Urban Growth Boundaries are a plague and will be responsible for all the
ills of the world
- We need to release more land!