Peak design bodies meet federal MPs to promote urban design priorities

Australia's peak architecture, planning, and landscape institutes have met with the Parliamentary Friends for Australian Urban Design at Parliament House in Canberra to promote the value of good design and planning, and present shared priorities for national policy action.

The Parliamentary Friends of Australian Urban Design - a bipartisan group of federal parliamentarians that advocates for the value of good design in shaping Australia's cities and regions - first launched at the 2024 Australian Urban Design Awards ceremony held at Parliament House.

On 5 November 2025, the Parliamentary Friends for Australian Urban Design co-chairs - Elizabeth Watson-Brown MP, Cameron Caldwell MP and Lisa Chesters MP - met with the Speaker of the House Milton Dick and the presidents of Australia's three peak design and planning bodies: Adam Haddow of the Australian Institute of Architects; Heath Gledhill of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects; and Emma Riley of the Planning Institute of Australia.

The event was an opportunity for the three bodies to discuss their shared priorities for federal action, identifying areas where national leadership could drive meaningful change. According to a communique from the Australian Institute of Architects, these include:

The Parliamentary Friends of Australian Urban Design will reconvene at the Australian Urban Design Awards on 24 March 2026, for which entries are now open until 30 January 2026.

The group has also committed to hosting a mid-year forum that explores case studies on "Density Done Well," and a November event that will examine design-led responses to climate change, and pathways to net zero across precincts, housing and infrastructure.