Category: Season 2

Season 2, Episode 3

With Kirsty Kelly

Kirsty Kelly is quietly spoken, but in this interview she shares great insights with authority.

Since 2019 Kirsty has been CEO of the AITPM (Australian Institute of Traffic Planning in Management) which is Australia’s national association for transport professionals.

Under Kirsty’s leadership, the AITPM recently published a groundbreaking Policy Issues Paper: The Path to Net Zero: Decarbonising Australia’s Transport System. You can download the full paper here.

In this interview we discuss six highlights of the paper’s 22 recommendations. AITPM is a professional membership association, not a lobby group, but many of these recommendations are in alignment with the things that lobby groups are calling for.

Kirsty has taken a keen interest in sustainable urban development for many years. Prior to joining the AITPM she was CEO of the Planning Institute of Australia – the peak professional body for Australia’s urban and regional planning professionals.

Kirsty is a qualified urban planner who has practiced her profession both within local and state governments and in private practice. She’s also been a member of range of boards and advisory groups.

In the What’s Up? section that follows our interview with Kirsty, we mention two organisations: 

Yarra Bug Podcast is an excellent long-running podcast that is also broadcast on 3CR community radio in Melbourne.

Camcycle is an advocacy organisation based in the small university city of Cambridge UK. Its dynamic CEO Roxanne De Beaux recently completed a speaking tour of Australia that we attended and we hope to have Roxy as a future guest on the Squeaky Wheel Podcast.

Season 2, Episode 2

With Professor Matt Burke

Matt is a great communicator who not only gives many insightful comments, but does so with a smile on his face and a glint in his eye.

Matt is a leading transport researcher and renowned expert on urban planning who has spoken widely via local state and national media, plus given keynotes at many conferences. Until recently Matt was Deputy Director at Griffith University’s Cities Research Institute. He has secured five national research grants and led major transport collaborations with Brisbane City Council and Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads.

Matt grew up in Melbourne and graduated with a Bachelor of Planning and Design (hons) for the University of Melbourne. He then moved to Brisbane in the late 1990’s where he did his PhD in Urban Planning at the University of Queensland.

In our interview Matt covers a wide range of topics from the “D-Day Invasion” of cars that lands in every schoolground twice a day, through to “autobesity”, the need for better urban planning and more.

Finally, you can see video of Ario self-parking three wheeled e-scooters that Phil mentions here.

Season 2, Episode 1

With Sara Stace

Sara Stace is a dynamic force of nature who will never die wondering what might have happened if she gave something a try!

After graduating as both an Architect and Urban Designer, Sara initially worked in these professions both within Australia and abroad.

Sara is a city shaper and innovator on cities, land use, urban transport and economics. She’s worked in federal, state and local governments, and the private sector, for 30 years.  Sara is currently on the board and treasurer of the World Cycling Alliance, President of Better Streets Australia, and has served on many other boards across both the government and advocacy sectors.  Sara has co-authored over 30 publications and policy papers for the United Nations, Australian Government and others.

You can see more about the World Cycling Alliance here.

You can see more about Better Streets here.

Better Streets is running a campaign leading up to the 2025 Australian federal election. They have a list of five clear ‘asks’ and have built a coalition of companies and not for profit organisations that have endorsed this campaign. At the time of writing this there were about 100 organisations signed on, but Better Streets is still looking for more to join. You can see the full list of coalition members here.

Sara has comprehensive background information and regularly posts on her LinkedIn page here. In that page, you will see that just after recording the Squeaky Wheel podcast with us, Sara announced on 6^th Febe 2025 that she’s cofounding a new consultancy called Vivendi Cities.

Sara refers to Infrastructure Australia mid-way through our conversation and mentions that she was not sure of the minimum project value threshold before projects must be assessed by them. It is $250 million.