Smart cities are no longer limited to a handful of metropolitan branded cities; as a large number of mid-sized cities have now joined the trend to become smart. Australia has also introduced its Smart Cities Plan in 2016; emphasizing the opportunities and challenges Australian cities have on their path to be smart. Gold Coast City as part of IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge, and Open and Agile Smart Cities Network already has a number of ad-hoc smart city initiatives in place. In this paper, local planning context and priorities in relation to smart cities are investigated, and benchmarked against best practice smart city initiatives from around the world. This exercise will identify areas in need of improvement; and the way forward for Gold Coast smart city, in alignment with existing planning priorities.