City Deals

Question

1. What oversight/responsibility does the Minister and the Cities and Suburbs Unit have over City Deals? If the Cities and Suburbs Unit no longer exists (given evidence provided at Senate Estimates about the fluidity of these ''units''), for the purposes of all questions, the Cities and Suburbs Unit should be taken as referring to the relevant unit responsible for national policy on cities. 2. If the Minister and the Cities and Suburbs Unit have no oversight/responsibility over City Deals, how does the Department responsible for cities and urban policy measure progress of the City Deals or track priorities/challenges in these major cities? 3. How many meetings has the Minister, her office and the Cities and Suburbs Unit (list separately) had with the relevant partners (State and Local Government) of each City Deal since Labor came to Government in 2022? a. Provide all records relating to said meetings, including times, dates, attendees, and agendas. 4. Why were City Deals not mentioned in the National Urban Policy (NUP) framework, given the Prime Minister's commitment to honour and refresh City Deals? 5. Has Treasury provided advice to Minister O'Neil on the future of City Deals? a. If yes, on what dates? b. Please the subject matter relating to that advice. 6. Has Treasury undertaken any review of the City Deals model since the 2025 machinery-of-government changes? A) If yes, provide copies or summaries. 7. Has Treasury provided advice to Government regarding: a. expanding City Deals; b. replacing City Deals; or c. discontinuing the City Deals model? 8. Has Treasury assessed the effectiveness of the City Deals model? a. If yes, provide copies of assessments. 9. Has Treasury identified any lessons from existing City Deals that could inform future cities policy? 10. Has Treasury received briefings from Infrastructure on the status of existing City Deals? a. If yes, provide dates and subjects. 11. Has Minister O'Neil requested updates on any City Deal since becoming Minister for Cities?

Answer

See attached response.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• SQ26-000276 City Deals.pdf (opens in a new tab)