07.03.2024Supporting Melbourne’s Strategic Assets

Melbourne’s strategic assets play a crucial role in supporting growth and prosperity. Whether it’s the city’s airports, port, education institutions or other assets, all provide services that enrich peoples’ lives, while supporting trade, commerce and Melbourne’s international competitiveness.

Melbourne Airport is particularly important. As the city’s major national and international gateway, it facilitates the movement of people and goods, delivering social and economic benefits ranging from the cultivation of social and trade relationships to job creation, to supply chain efficiency, to industry resilience. It is an indispensable asset for Melbourne.

That is why the Committee, in a submission to the Federal Government’s inquiry into the impact and mitigation of aircraft noise, highlighted the need to for an integrated transport plan for Melbourne, that encompasses land use and economic planning. Such a plan, with the necessary detail, timeframes and accountabilities, would help ensure that urban development appropriately safeguards freight movements and the city’s key strategic assets, including Melbourne Airport.

With Melbourne’s population, freight task and visitor arrivals growing steadily, it is crucial that Melbourne Airport can manage the demands placed on it now and into the future, to help ensure ongoing wellbeing and prosperity.

The submission aligns with the Committee’s Transporting Melbourne report and with the pre-budget submission to the Victorian Government, which addressed matters relating to infrastructure provision, planning and transport, including the Melbourne Airport Rail project.