Making 'Sydney Global City': Antecedents, the competitive imperative and the problem of leadership

Local government in New South Wales (NSW) Australia presently faces the prospect of sweeping reforms, principally radical consolidation and the implementation of metropolitan-wide governance. The putative necessity of these... [ view full abstract ]

Local government in New South Wales (NSW) Australia presently faces the prospect of sweeping reforms, principally radical consolidation and the implementation of metropolitan-wide governance. The putative necessity of these processes has been couched in the rhetoric of the need to achieve ‘global city’ status such that Sydney can successfully compete with other regionally-based centres (Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai). Following from a brief account of early attempts at metropolitan governance, we examine ‘Sydney global city’ as it is portrayed in the academic literature, examining in particular the methodology of Hu, Blakely and Zhou (2013) in determining the place of Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai in the ranking of global cities. The discussion moves to an account of the contemporary processes of state-local relations toward consolidation and metropolitan governance, in particular the creation of the Greater Sydney Commission (GSC). We argue that the end games of these processes may well be dysfunctional, divided metropolitan governance for Sydney, torn between the sovereign authority of the state of NSW, the putative ‘Sydney Global City’ a politically emboldened municipal sector and a policy agenda that is increasingly privatised.