Hobart has jumped five places to third most liveable city in the Property Council’s poll My City: the People’s Verdict – a national poll that tests residents’ views on the liveability of our cities.
600 residents from greater Hobart were polled on what makes a liveable city and according to their
verdict the city had improved across a range of areas, jumping five places from 2011.
“This is the people’s verdict on their own city – it’s a report card for governments on how liveable
our cities are and it’s great to see Tasmania’s capital city has improved,” Executive Director Mary
Massina said.
The survey by Auspoll tested the views of Hobart residents, benchmarking its performance on 17
attributes that define good cities, such as look and design, range of recreational outdoor
environments, safety for people and property, employment and economic opportunities, health care
and education.
“Hobart scored well in the areas of being an affordable place to have a good standard of living,
topping the list, as well as having a good range of quality affordable housing and being a safe place
for people and their property, placing third and second respectively,” Ms Massina said.
“However, the capital city performed badly in the key areas of having good employment and
economic opportunities, where it hit the bottom of the list, the assessment of a good healthcare
system saw Hobart second last and third last when it came to having good schools and other
educational facilities.”
Ms Massina said the research also revealed attitudes to the State Government’s performance on a
range of issues.
“Overall, Hobart residents rated the performance of their State Government quite poorly on a
number of aspects,” she said.
“For example, they believed the Government was doing a poor job of setting a fair level of taxation
when people buy or sell properties and supplying infrastructure to keep up with the demand.”
The report also revealed that the majority of Hobartians want Federal Government action to
improve their capital city, particularly investing in major infrastructure and putting in place
incentives and penalties to encourage State and Local Governments to plan cities better through
streamlining the planning process and cutting red and green tape.
“In this Federal Election year and in the lead up to the State Election, the onus is on the political
parties and local candidates to respond to the survey with detailed policies to address the problems
in our cities,” Ms Massina said.
“Australians and in particular Hobartians have given their verdict – they want more liveable cities
and they know the performance of our cities is critical for our future economic prosperity.”
The Property Council’s My City: The People’s Verdict report is available at:
www.propertyoz.com.au/mycity
Property Council: Executive Director Mary Massina
