LAUSR

ABSTRACT This article compares government tiers, governance models, and strategic planning policies applying to metropolitan Vancouver and Melbourne. The method of comparison was chosen to reveal gaps in policies to assess the potential for improving the governance model for metropolitan Melbourne. The regional or metropolitan tier of government is absent in Australia. This deficit causes the absence of institutional frameworks and policy delivery tools at the metropolitan level – the metropolitan governance deficit. The establishing of the additional fourth tier of government could be effective to address the implementation deficit in Melbourne. This paper reviews the bottom-up two-tier metropolitan governance model and how it could impact positively on the infrastructure delivery using the Strategic Plan as a planning tool.