On his third trade mission to India recently, Andrew Barr, Minister for Tourism and Trade, Australia, and Chief Minister, Australian Capital Territory (ACT) covered two Indian cities: Delhi and Bengaluru.
Incidentally, Canberra – the city it hails from – was named the best city in the world for quality of life in 2025 by the Oxford Economics Global Cities report. What are they doing right there that fast growing cities like Bengaluru can take notes from?
“My experience from the 100 or so cities around the world that I’ve visited both professionally and as a tourist is that investment in rapid mass transit is critical to making a city more enjoyable for its residents and more accessible for its visitors. So connecting from airports to the CBD, connecting major attractions and major population centers is essential,” he said, noting that congestion in big cities occurs when individuals take up limited traffic space in their space.
City 15-20 minutes
Canberra has a very large geographical footprint, almost equivalent to Greater London, he pointed out, adding that it is Australia’s largest inland city.
“Her urban renewal journey has been very much about increasing population density, not about further sprawl. We’ve focused on creating areas of greater residential and commercial density in key city centres, transport corridors and where the employment is. The aim has been to ensure Canberra remains a 15 to 20 minute city. Our public transport investment, rail infrastructure investment, electrification of our bus fleet has really focused on those key transport corridors.
Mr Barr went on to explain that the planning and design of Canberra is that not all jobs are located in the central business district; they have a number of different “job nodes”.
“This has allowed people to have employment and recreation and housing options in much closer proximity. The hallmark of Canberra, which is a more modern and younger city, is that a lot of the design has been car-centric, but that’s changing. The aim is to make the city much more accessible and easier to get around through e-mobility,” he continued.
Faster journey times on public transport are a real tipping point for people’s choice, Mr Barr argued. “Everybody wants to spend more time doing the things they enjoy, and I don’t think there are many people who enjoy commuting,” he said, reflecting transit lanes such as bus and bike lanes.
Other things that can be done include a little more flexibility in terms of prime work hours, he said, referring to the morning and evening peak hours when congestion is at its peak because most people’s work timings coincide. “The solution here is a combination of more infrastructure, more public transport. But that comes with costs,” he said.
Indian diaspora and tourists
Mr Barr spoke about why the ACT, specifically and Australia in general, is coming up with targeted programs to attract more Indian talent and tourists.
“We’ve been targeting the Indian market for some time and it’s starting to pay off. We’ve seen about 4,30,000 Indian tourists visiting Australia in 2025, growing between 5% and 10% a year, and the ACT’s market share of that is about 3.5%, which is actually double our population because it’s the biggest mix of visiting friends and people in tourism. Canberra is now Indian a community that represents almost 5% of Canberra’s total population,” explained Mr Barr.
Andrew Barr discusses why the ACT in particular and Australia in general are coming up with targeted programs to attract more Indian talent and tourists. | Photo credit: Tourism Australia
He went on to say Indian students now represent just under 15% of the international student market for Canberra and the city and ACT are seeing a strong influx of students from India and the region, reflecting the visa and work rights arrangements Australia has put in place.
Published – 28 Feb 2026 20:52 IST
