PHOTO: Brisbane is run by a single Brisbane City Council, which can make unified decisions about how it should work, plans for its future and infrastructure investments.

Sydney is falling behind Brisbane in the race to become Australia’s first truly global city.

While Sydney is recognised by the world for its natural beauty, it could do a lot better in terms of its built environment, a team of experts have declared.

“We could do much more to improve the public realm and we have a lot of underutilised assets in both private and public hands that could be repurposed to much better effect,” said Andrew Hoyne, the principal of place and property branding and marketing company Hoyne who on Thursday launched a new book about global cities.

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