Paterson's curse: the attempt to revive metropolitan planning in Melbourne: a response to Paul Mees

I have asked for this opportunity to respond to the Practice Review article by Dr Mees in the September 2003 edition of Urban Policy and Research, as the article contains a number of errors of fact. These are addressed below: Thwaites... was personally committed to planning, but had limited time (one afternoon a week in fact) for the job, due to the much heavier workload in the health portfolio. He addressed this by appointing Professor Lyndsay Neilson Secretary of the Department of Infrastructure... Minister Thwaites did spend an afternoon each week clearing and signing statutory documents and key correspondence, but this was a very small part of his work as Minister for Planning. Both Minister Thwaites and Minister Delahunty, the present Minister for Planning, committed significant time to the development of Melbourne 2030, as did Minister Batchelor with respect to the transport aspects of the Strategy.