ABSTRACT
The targeted process, focusing on a limited number of key issues likely to shape the future trajectory of a metropolitan region, and also a normative process, underpinned by notions of what ought to be —the 'issues that really matter'. The growing environmental awareness was seen as underpinning some renewed popular and political support for public planning, but at odds with broader currents of 'market-triumphalism' market-based solutions to public policy issues and the growth and global competiveness of Australia's cities. The national economy continues to grow slowly, buoyed by increased public investment, growth in the 'knowledge economy' and by a strong agricultural sector. Australia's indigenous population also increasingly resides in major cities, with about half of the indigenous populations of South Australia and Victoria found, respectively, in Adelaide and Melbourne. Under neoliberal governance regimes, they have been shaped primarily by national immigration, tax and finance policies, by disruptive technological innovations, by cultural shifts and by increasingly unrestrained market power.
