On Thursday 23 June 2005, the Joint Standing Committee on National Capital and External Territories tabled its report on the inquiry into the adequacy of funding for Australia's Antarctic Program.

Current approaches to safeguarding urban water quality can be largely ineffective as they focus on standard ‘end-of-pipe’ solutions. Problems of urban water pollution need do be dealt with at source rather than end of pipe and as such will only be remedied through innovative planning.

This paper focuses on two major environmental problems in Australian cities, air pollution and water, and discusses possible management strategies.