Australia

LEND Lease last week announced it has signed an exclusive dealing agreement with Crown Limited in relation to the development of a world class international hotel resort at Barangaroo South, while Crown also announced it will develop a new luxury hotel at its Burswood integrated resort.

The agreement for the Barangaroo hotel provides Crown with the right to work exclusively with Lend Lease for a period of up to 24 months to reach agreement on certain key milestones for the hotel resort and to obtain the necessary development approvals for the project.

THE number of dwellings approved fell 2.5 per cent in June 2012, in seasonally adjusted terms, following a rise of 27.0 per cent in the previous month, according to the latest building approval figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) last week.

Dwelling approvals decreased for the month of June in Victoria (-14.6 per cent) but increased in Western Australia (28.9 per cent), Queensland (18.0 per cent), Tasmania (9.2 per cent), New South Wales (7.7 per cent) and South Australia (4.1 per cent), in seasonally adjusted terms.

POPULATION growth in Australia between June 2001 and June 2011 was strongest in the outer suburbs, with the five areas with the largest growth all on the outskirts of Melbourne, according to figures released last week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Australia's estimated resident population reached 22.3 million at 30 June 2011, increasing by 2.9 million people or 15 per cent since 30 June 2001. The greatest increases occurred in Australia's three most populous states: Queensland (up by 845,200 people); Victoria (729,800); and New South Wales (636,300).

FEDERAL Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese last week released a new report by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE), titled 'Understanding Australia's Urban Railways'.

This report provides an overview of the urban railway systems in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, including both passenger and freight services. It also explores network and service provision, patronage trends, the urban freight rail networks and plans for capacity and network expansion.

THE Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) and the Petcare Information Advisory Service (PIAS) have partnered to launch the inaugural 2012 Pet Friendly Planning Award to recognise planning projects that best consider the needs of pets.

PIA National President Dyan Currie said the shift in the way Australians are living, such as in townhouses and apartments and more compact urban environments, combined with the ongoing popularity of pet ownership are driving the need to better plan for pets in urban environments.

A REPORT released this month by Infrastructure Partnerships Australia (IPA) and global consulting firm Arup calls on all levels of government to integrate the way they plan, regulate and operate metropolitan infrastructure and for the performance of cities to be tracked.

IPA Chief Executive, Brendan Lyon, said that while governments invest tens of billions in urban Australia each year, the effectiveness of this funding is not tracked.

INFRASTRUCTURE Australia has released its fourth review of national infrastructure priorities and performance, highlighting the vital role of infrastructure in contributing to national productivity and quality of life.

The report to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), Progress and Action, includes Infrastructure Australia's annual infrastructure priority list.

THE Federal Government this week released guidelines for the $6 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund that aims to unlock investment in communities dealing with the impacts of the mining boom.

The government has set aside $6 billion for the Regional Infrastructure Fund as part of the proceeds of the Minerals Resource Rent Tax to pay for major road, rail, ports and other economic infrastructure to support growth.

MORE than three in every five of the lowest income renting households pay more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, according to the latest analysis by the COAG Reform Council that was publicly released late last month.

The Council, in its third report under the National Affordable Housing Agreement, examined governments' progress towards achieving the objective that: "'Australians have access to affordable, safe and sustainable housing."

A REPORT released last week by Infrastructure Partnerships Australia (IPA) and Booz & Company has called for sweeping changes to the way transport projects are conceived, planned and operated across Australia.

"This report calls for a fundamental overhaul of transport planning, ensuring Australia's governments are harnessing world's best practice to transparently select the best projects, in the right places, for the right reasons to meet the customer's needs," said IPA Chief Executive, Brendan Lyon.

THE Infrastructure Investment Metric, a new major series of research reports being produced by Infrastructure Partnerships Australia (IPA), in collaboration with business research and forecasting firm, BIS Shrapnel, was released last week.

The Metric measures Australia's actual progress on its infrastructure backlog and reveals that headline infrastructure investment figures are being inflated by mining related projects, with the nation not making substantial progress on its infrastructure shortfalls.

THE number of dwellings approved rose 27.3 per cent in May 2012, in seasonally adjusted terms, following a downwardly revised fall of 7.6 per cent in April, according to figures released last week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Dwelling approvals increased in Victoria (31.8 per cent), New South Wales (25.1 per cent), Western Australia (24.8 per cent), South Australia (16.2 per cent) and Queensland (10.3 per cent) but decreased in Tasmania (-12.1 per cent), in seasonally adjusted terms.