Inter-agency land administration in Australia: what scope for integrating policies, processes and data infrastructures for housing production?

Abstract

Land as a resource is not currently managed efficiently and effectively as revealed through existing knowledge. The objective of this paper is to determine the level of this inefficiency in order to improve our understanding of the interrelationship between agencies that perform land administration functions. The research methods include a synthesis of past studies and the use of a case study approach. It uses as context Melbourne, Victoria, in Australia. This approach involves triangulation of mixed methods: interviews and on-line survey are the data sources. The Paired-Samples t-test procedure and the Pearson correlation between each pair were used for analysis. The results revealed limited integration of processes and collaboration of agencies in the management of land for housing production. The paper concludes that policies are not sufficiently informed by data and there is a noticeable disconnection between agencies and formulated policies. Invariably, land administration processes do not sufficiently drive the type of data that is collected.

Keywords::

• land administration
• housing
• integration
• collaboration

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by the Australian Research Council through a linkage project (Project ID: LP-099057) on National Infrastructure for Managing Land Information (NIMLI). This is with the collaboration of the industry partners: Land Victoria, Land and Property Management Authority, New South Wales, Landgate-Western Australia and PSMA. Also acknowledged are the constructive comments from members of the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructure and Land Administration (CSDILA). However, the views presented are those of the authors and not of the project partners.

Notes

^1. Action or activities of agencies shared with inherent intention to benefit others. It involves no formal rules, minimal resources, independent power, and not too clear goals.

^2. It involves harmonious combination or interaction of functions or processes between two or more organisations. It involves few rules, limited resources, some interdependency and clear agency goals.

^3. This is the willingness of two or more organisations to, constructively, explore (synergy) differences in their functions and processes and search for strategies to achieve better outcomes beyond their own limited vision of what is possible.