As the Victorian government tried to draw a line under its repudiation of the East West Link contract paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation, Kate Roffey​ sounds almost resigned to the outcome.

It's a "terrible" precedent, the chief executive of the Committee for Melbourne tells Fairfax Media, but in the end "it's probably as good an outcome as you could get".

"We shouldn't have been in that position to start with," she says.

That statement neatly encapsulates the Committee for Melbourne's continuing mission as it celebrates its 30th anniversary.

Formed as a rallying point for the city's businesses in the mid-1980s it has sought to push big ideas for Melbourne with an eye to the long-term.

The unedifying political mud-wrestle over infrastructure in the past year is antithetical to the group's ideals.

Back in 1985 one of its core issues was a push to ensure Melbourne Airport, then in public ownership, developed into a major economic asset worthy of a global city. Today Melbourne's curfew-free airport is just that.

Among those founders are quintessentially Melbourne names like Pamela Warrender, Hugh Morgan, Gary Morgan and John Elliott.

It was a highly unusual member-based approach that was seen as pioneering at the time and reflects the city's personality.

"There is something in the Melbourne culture which says we can together and think about the greater good," she says.

These days it is pushing hard on a number of fronts including the need for an independent method of assessing infrastructure priorities – something which seems especially pertinent.

The quality of public policy-making and debate is hotly debated these days. Roffey detects a lack of belief in the community.

"We have always been a courageous city, not afraid to be at the forefront and try things, I think we have lost a bit of that recently," she says.

"I'm not sure that's the fault of politicians, although our recent propensity to change our more quickly in recent years could be influencing that behaviour.

"We have to start being courageous again really looking at some of these problems we are facing and saying 'realistically how are we going to deal with these things'. We have to give the politicians the courage to raise these issues."

The committee's current chair, the Bank of Melbourne's Scott Tanner, strikes a similar note telling a celebration on Thursday night that entrepreneurship runs through Melbourne's streets.

"Melbourne's history is one of risk-taking, endeavour, and opportunity," he says.

Roffey​ doesn't buy the oft-touted view that today's public discourse is being ruined by a Twitter-length attention span.

"Social media have changed the space but I think it is for the better. It's not that hard to cut through if you are making sense," she says, adding that persistence is still the key.

"You have to keep banging on about it, saying it hundreds of times until it gets across, we tend to give up a little too easily."

She says it also not so much that business leaders have lost the nerve or the knack of pushing policy – the problem is more that views that are too one-dimensional.

"There are plenty of voices but it is often a voice that is too narrow in its view," she says.

So where to now? Roffey​ highlights Melbourne's economic engine room as a key focus now. The looming departure of the car industry just as the nation is experiencing a post-mining boom hangover should prompt some serious thinking about Melbourne's strengths, she says.

"We need to pick winners," she said.

She is not advocating the old model of subsidy-based attraction. Rather Melbourne's advantages should be played to in areas such as education and biotechnology.

Greater focus should go on harnessing the wealth those activities can generate and keeping the benefits here, she says.

The Committee also released a solid blueprint towards tackling the particularly Melbourne problem of level crossings a couple of years ago. As well as presenting a wish list, the template presented a suite of funding options to making the vision a reality.

Roffey​ says that campaign is far from finished.

"If you keep raising issues that need to be raised there is a lot of value in that."