ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the growth of South East Queensland since 2000 before charting chronologically the various attempts since the beginning of this century to meet the challenges of growth management through processes of metropolitan and regional planning. It focuses on the political and institutional pressures and problems associated with developing collaborative arrangements between state and local governments and consider the consequences of a shifting balance of power and responsibility between these levels. The Queensland divisions of the Planning Institute of Australia and the Urban Development Institute of Australia and, importantly, the local media began to campaign for change, alongside the Brisbane Institute under the leadership of urban historian Peter Spearritt. Regional and indeed local growth management strategies such as the South East Queensland Regional Plan must create an environment in which growth is encouraged, but then regulated in ways that are widely accepted as reasonable and sensible.
