Who killed Melbourne 2030?

Melbourne's metropolitan strategy Melbourne 2030 was conceived in 1999, born in 2002, pronounced dead in 2009 and finally buried, unmourned and unloved, in 2011. When the newly-elected Baillieu government announced earlier this year that it intended to scrap Melbourne 2030 and replace it with a new metropolitan planning strategy, the response was a deafening silence. This lack of protest, or even condolences, contrasts strangely with the fulsome praise Melbourne 2030 attraced at its launch and for some time afterwards. The Melbourne strategy was hailed as a model for metropolitan planning, and an example for other cities. This paper analyses the rise and fall of Melbourne 2030, with a view to explaining the strategy's demise.