A partnership between three levels of government to deliver planning and infrastructure in the Hunter has been given a renewed push by the country's peak property organisation.
The Property Council of Australia hosted an event on Friday about the potential for a City Deal for the Hunter, which brings together local, state and federal governments to create an economic development strategy for a region.
The property council advocated to bring the idea over from the UK in 2014. There are currently nine City Deals throughout the country, including Western Sydney, Launceston, South East Queensland, Darwin, Townsville, Geelong, Perth, Hobart and Adelaide.
The Western Sydney deal has helped to secure the Sydney Metro-Western Sydney Airport rail line.
The council has previously advocated for the Hunter to be part of the program, and has renewed the call after the federal election with Labor supporting the wider concept.
Property Council CEO Ken Morrison said the deals were about improving the productivity of a city.
"Getting stuck in a traffic jam isn't productive, not having access to good jobs, having a poorly formed city, ain't productive," he said.
"So we need mechanisms to align governments and align solutions around those issues."
Institute for Regional Futures Professor Roberta Ryan said the deals were about "connectivity".
"Every deal is jobs and housing, but it's how you connect them," she said.
"It's the connecting of the jobs and the housing. And it's not just transport connectivity.
"In the Hunter, we're pretty desperate in the public transport stakes, and [there's] lots of road infrastructure we need, but it's really about that connectivity piece."
Council of Mayors South East Queensland CEO Scott Smith spoke about the South East Queensland deal, and how it came about after the state government wanted to introduce a regional plan, and the affected councils wanted to fight it.
"It's kind of naive of anyone to think that we don't need three tiers of government, the federal government sets immigration policy, they set all sorts of big picture policy, then the state have to do it, and then councils have to deliver it along with industry," he said. "And without doing that together, we're just bound for failure."
