Multifunction Polis

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The Multifunction Polis (MFP) was a controversial concept, first proposed in 1987, to build a new technology city with a population of 100,000 in Australia.

The MFP was to include futuristic villages containing housing, education, employment and recreation. [1] A modern communication system was proposed to attract high tech industry funded by Asian investment, with an emphasis on Japanese investment. In 1990, a site was chosen in the north of Adelaide. The proposal generated opposition in Australia from those opposed to Japanese investment. The funding never eventuated, and the original project was abandoned in 1998.

[edit] History

The Multifunction Polis was first proposed at a Japanese / Australian ministerial meeting between Japanese Trade Minister Hajima Tamura and Australia's Senator John Button in January 1987 in Canberra. [2]

It was billed as "a multifunctional facility (which) would incorporate future oriented high technology and leisure facilities and could promote international exchange in the Pacific Region on new industry and lifestyle."[2]

An early draft, produced a month after the initial meeting, described the Multifunction Polis as a "cosmopolis to become a forum for international exchange in the region and a model for new industries and new lifestyles looking ahead to the twenty-first century."[2]

Originally proposed for the Gold Coast, in 1990, the location was switched to North Adelaide.[3] A Japanese press release said the Multifunction Polis will be "a place of providing, gathering, and reproducing information of diverse aspects, strata, and form, as well as relaxation, comfort, surprise, joy, entertainment and intellectual stimulation."[2]

A rumor spread around Australia that 200,000 Japanese wanted to settle in the Multifunction Polis.[2]

The Multifunction Polis project failed to attract the investment required, and the Australian Federal Government withdrew funding in 1996. In 1998, the Premier of South Australia, John Olsen officially announced its demise.[1] The cost of the failed project to the Australian taxpayer was $150 million.[3]

Former South Australian Shadow Treasurer, John Quirke, described the MFP saga as one of the most bizarre development projects in Australia's history.[3] Denis Gastin, who headed the feasibility study into the project, said the demise of the Multifunction Polis was an embarrassment to the nation internationally.[1]

"It's an international embarrassment that we deliberately sought and captured international attention for a project that we did not deliver," said Gastin. "South Australia had a chance to do something that would make the nation take it more seriously but what history shows is it bit off more than it could chew."[1]

[edit] Opposition to the Multifunction Polis

Liberal Party leader, Andrew Peacock, was especially critical of the Multifunction Polis proposal, as was RSL president Brigadier Alf Garland. Peacock and Garland both argued that the Multifunction Polis would become an 'Asian enclave'. [4]

The Daily Mirror newspaper at the time published huge numbers of readers' letters attacking the Multifunction Polis and Asian immigration.[4]

Victorian RSL President Bruce Ruxton said the Multifunction Polis would become a "Jap City". [5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Hodge, Amanda. "MFP failure leaves a red-faced nation", The Australian, 1998-01-27. Retrieved on 2008-01-12. 
  2. ^ a b c d e Castells, Manuel; Hall, Peter [1994]. Technopoles of the World: The Making of Twenty-First-Century Industrial. Routledge, 206-219. ISBN 0415100151. Retrieved on 2008-01-12. 
  3. ^ a b c Hills, Ben. "The city that never was", The Sydney Morning Herald, 1997-08-16. Retrieved on 2008-01-12. 
  4. ^ a b Jupp, James [2007]. From White Australia to Woomera: The Story of Australian Immigration. Cambridge University Press, 107-219. ISBN 0521697891. Retrieved on 2008-01-12. 
  5. ^ Hills, Ben. "The $2 billion creature on a black lagoon", Sydney: Good Weekend, 1992-06-27, p. 8. Retrieved on 2008-01-12.