Photo: Tony Moore

Speaking at a Future Cities Summit in Brisbane on Thursday, Assistant Minister for Cities Angus Taylor announced a series of stakeholder roundtables would be held in September to kick start the $50 million Smart Cities and Suburbs Program.

A key election commitment of the Turnbull Government, the Program will support councils across Australia to fast-track open data and innovative technology solutions to fix local problems.

Assistant Minister Taylor said the goal was to encourage local government to partner with tech experts to make our cities and suburbs more liveable, sustainable and productive.

“The Smart Cities and Suburbs Program is to support clever technology ideas to fix difficult or long standing community issues. The most valuable projects will be transformative collaborations between multiple councils and technology industry partners that link closely with future plans for the area,” he said.

“The Commonwealth expects local governments to bring forward a variety of cutting-edge projects such as collaborative design solutions or pilots of emerging technologies.”

A wide range of projects are expected to be eligible, such as app-based detection of infrastructure wear and tear and automatic dispatch of maintenance crews, to computer generated programs  that support or enhance city services.

Assistant Minister Taylor noted that the Government was keen to explore innovative approaches to program delivery, with a focus on improving people’s quality of life.  “Government will be working with various sectors – public and private – to design a program that unlocks real-world solutions through new technology and open data.”

Stakeholder roundtables will be held in a number of major cities during September 2016. For the latest information on the Program, and to register your interest in attending a roundtable, please visit the Smart Cities Plan site.