He may be a self-proclaimed media tart, but Premier Peter Beattie seems to have missed out on getting his point across on some issues, most notably the amalgamation of councils, the question of housing affordability and the demand for infrastructure upgrades throughout Queensland.

Yet it all became clear at the 2007 Urban Development Institute of Australia’s Queensland conference at Hyatt Coolum last month.

Among the guest speakers were Victoria’s Growth Areas Authority (GAA) chairman Chris Banks, New South Wales Growth Centres Commission (GCC) chief executive officer Angus Dawson and Queensland Department of Infrastructure CEO Ken Smith.

You would think that a Victorian, a New South Welshman and a Queenslander would not be able to agree on anything. Yet at the Velocity Accelerating Change conference they shared a common thread: How to accommodate the number of people wanting to live in our major growth centres.

The GAA and GCC were established to facilitate the creation of new urban communities around Melbourne and Sydney. Now Queensland is creating an Urban Land Development Authority (ULDA).

Chris Banks says the Victorian Government initiative is looking at five major growth areas around Melbourne which are expected to have about 270,000 new dwellings built over the next 25 years.

Angus Dawson has a similar task: Help plan and bring about two new growth centres in Sydney’s north-west and south-west to house another 1.1 million people in 25 years.

So it is little wonder we are moving to accommodate the additional one million people wanting to live in south-east Queensland by 2026. After all, Queensland’s economic growth of 5% is set to out-perform the nation for 12th consecutive year and employment growth rates are the best in Australia.

By creating the ULDA, the state government wants to fast-track available land for housing, speed up the approvals process, create sustainable business areas and provide the required infrastucture.

These communities will stop people thinking they have to travel to a capital city for work. We will see real town centres, not just shopping centres, the development of 24/7 learning centres, not 9-3 fortress schools, and true community hubs, not just libraries.

The amalgamation of councils is seen as a way to create viable communities that will be able to stand on their own and attract growth.

It happened in Victoria in the 1990s in the Jeff Kennett era, and according to Chris Banks it has been very successful. Even though the new councils often have incredibly long names that few people know the meaning of ...