Spatial planning and urban infrastructure have emerged as important foci of debates about cities in the last decade. The Australian government has returned to the urban terrain via an infrastructure program and urban policy development after more than a decade of dormancy on urban issues. This paper examines the new urban policy in an historical context to assess how it represents an evolution in federal approaches to cities. First the paper reviews recent scholarly debates about national level urban policy. Next the paper reviews the Australian experience of national level urban policy, focusing on the policy approach adopted. Lastly the paper assesses how the current national urban policy represents an evolution of previous efforts. The paper argues that although the new urban policy arrangements avoid some of the weaknesses of previous attempts they are nonetheless fragile in new ways.