Paul Mees

Paul Mees OAM (20 March 1961 – 19 June 2013) was an Australian academic, specialising in urban planning and public transport.

[1] At the time of his death he was an associate professor in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University.

In both his campaigning and academic work Mees confronted powerful interests, questioned the status quo and challenged common community perceptions of good policy and practice – often courting controversy.

His work provided the basis for the European Union's 2005 HiTrans project on improving public transport in medium-sized cities and towns.

In the late 1990s he questioned the legality of aspects of the largest urban infrastructure project in Australia's history, the CityLink tollway system in Melbourne.

In the early 2000s he also helped to establish the short-lived Public Transport First Party in Victoria, which campaigned in selected electorates on transport-related issues.

In 2013 he questioned the quality of research behind the Victorian Government's proposed east–west tunnel link in Melbourne's inner northern suburbs, recording a video presentation for a major public meeting a week before his death.

[5] Mees was survived by Cervini; his mother Roma and father Tom, a retired barrister specialising in industrial relations law; and his three younger brothers – Peter (also a lawyer), Bernard (also an RMIT academic), and Stephen.