Peter Lewis says the public no longer believes that mining has personal benefits – despite an expensive ad campaign from the industry.

The long-running ‘This is our story’ campaign is the soft side of the anti-mining tax’s shock-and-awe bombardment of 2010 that delivered the head of a prime minister and a windfall approaching $20 billion for its sponsors.

But in the intervening 18 months, the national tone has changed from one where the mining industry’s success was seen as central to the national interest to one where the question appears to be: is this ‘our’ story or just theirs?

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3968928.html

Ben Pearson is the Program Director for Greenpeace Australia Pacific. He has worked on energy and environment issues in Australia and Internationally for nearly 20 years.

Previous to his current role, Ben worked for the NSW Government on renewable energy policy, particularly the Solar Flagships Program.

Mark Delaney was appointed Chief Investment Officer and Deputy CEO of AustralianSuper in July 2006 after STA and ARF merged.

Mr Delaney has the formidable responsibility of investing currently around A$43 billion of members’ retirement savings.

Ken Morrison is the Chief Operating Officer of the Property Council of Australia, the nation’s advocate for the $600 billion property industry.

Ken’s role is to drive a strategic review of the organisation and oversee the growth of its national business operations.

Ken Morrison says the time for talking is over — the Federal Government needs to take action on planning our cities.

Every 87 seconds a new Australian is added to our heavily urbanised population.

That Aussie is mostly likely to end up in the big smoke – being a boon on productivity but also a drain on housing, infrastructure and services.

Our growth is not nearly as explosive as China where a new city the size of Adelaide is being built every five days.

But Ken Morrison from the Property Council of Australia tells 3Q that COAG’s criticisms of state governments’ failure to plan are justified, as the PCA’s CEO Peter Verwer told the Press Club recently.

Mark Delaney explains how super funds are delivering good returns through investing in infrastructure.

We all rely on energy, communications, transport and dozens of other public utilities.

Traditionally it’s been the role of governments to fund such vital infrastructure.

But the costs involved mean governments are increasingly handing that role to the private sector — and that includes super funds.

If you’re a member of AustralianSuper, you may already be investing in new energy production, airports, ports and the like.

Mark Delaney, Deputy CEO and Chief Investment Officer at Australian Super, tells 3Q that the long term nature of infrastructure funding and the solid returns make it an attractive investment.

Ben Pearson says the move to sustainable cities may be expensive in the short term but will reap benefits for the future.

We live in one of the most urbanised nations on Earth, with the bulk of our population in our major cities.

While high density cities make us more efficient, innovative and engaged, the growth of cities is putting pressure on the environment, our health and our well being. So how do we make them more liveable and sustainable?

Ben Pearson from Greenpeace heads a 3Q discussion on future cities like Masdar City in Abu Dhabi.

He explains why we love city living and what needs to change to make it sustainable.

Peter Lewis presents polling that shows public opinion is turning in favour of the $40 billion national broadband network.

Until now the NBN has been an abstract debate about national building and future proofing the economy on one hand, and a misguided venture designed purely to waste taxpayers’ money on the other. Now it’s about to shift from rhetoric to reality, with roll out plans for about a third of households and businesses released last week.