Archived News for Professionals in Local Government

The Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW (LGSA) have welcomed The Greens NSW launch of their 'Reinvigorating Local Government' platform, and have endorsed their proposals for local communities to make local decisions.

The Federal Government will launch a major review into disaster insurance in Australia, examining if there is a role for the Commonwealth to provide an insurance scheme to protect homeowners, business and government from floods, bushfires and other disasters.

A City of Perth project that encouraged innovative solutions to planning issues has been recognised by the Planning Institute of Australia.
 

The Victorian government has created a new unit based within the Department of Planning and Community Development to liaise with peri-urban councils in the area surrounding Melbourne.

A report by the independent Infrastructure Charges Taskforce to the Queensland government has made ten recommendations to simplify and standardise the way local government infrastructure charges are calculated.

Local government councils have submitted 38 of the 197 submissions received by the parliamentary inquiry into the role and potential of the National Broadband Network.

Local government councils around Australia are passing resolutions to support the financial recognition of local government in the Constitution, according to the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA).

The Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW have rejected the NSW Minister for Roads and Western Sydney David Borger's comments proposing amalgamations of Sydney councils.

The Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW (LGSA) are calling on all political parties to scrap Part 3A and end the State Government's 'reign' over the NSW planning system.

The expansion of the natural gas network to regional communities across Victoria is a step closer as the government progresses the delivery of its $100 million Energy for the Regions program.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has just released a report 'A different perspective on the "two-speed" economy' which found during the first stages of the resources boom, unemployment was actually very low across the entire country.

Golden Plains Shire councillor Bill McArthur has been re-elected president of the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) for a two-year term.

Cr McArthur said he looked forward to serving local government alongside new and returning Board colleagues and MAV executives.

“Together we will deal with the challenges and opportunities facing the sector,” Cr McArthur said in a statement.

“Key priorities for me will be to advocate the need for the State Government to consult with local government as a key stakeholder in decision making and to continue to represent the collective and influential voice of local government across Victoria – responsibly, ethically and passionately.”

MAV also announced the election of 12 regional Board representatives: Cr Gaetano Greco (Darebin); Cr John Sipek (Moonee Valley); Cr Coral Ross (Boroondara); Cr Mary Lalios (Whittlesea); Cr Lisa Mahood (Wodonga); Cr David Clark (Pyrenees); Cr Reid Mather (Buloke); and Cr Jeff Amos (Wellington).

They join four regional MAV Board members elected unopposed last month: Cr Rod Fyffe (Bendigo); Cr Ken Gale (Moyne); Cr Geoff Lake (Monash); and Cr Geoff Gough (Manningham).

Councils in Queensland will face average cost increases of 7.5 per cent, according to the latest local government cost index report.

Commissioned by the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ), the 2011 council cost index report forecasted an increase in the cost of road and bridge construction, due to the recent natural disasters.

The report found that councils unaffected by the disasters would face significant increases in their costs because of state-wide demand for construction resources.

LGAQ chief executive Greg Hallam said the hike in construction costs should be considered when setting rates.

"They need to reconcile increased community expectations about the level of services they provide with the capacity to pay for those services,” Mr Hallam said in a statement.

"But councils would not be contributing to the financial sustainability of their communities it they tried to limit rate increases to just the CPI level.''

The report estimated that damage caused by the floods and cyclone would add an extra 15 per cent on the total amount of public capital works across the state.

Local government researchers and tertiary institutions now have the opportunity to conduct original research that will benefit the sector under an initiative undertaken by the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government.

A $1 billion Regional Development Australia Fund has been established by the Federal Government to drive economic development in regional and rural Australia.

RMIT University researchers are developing a participatory toolkit for establishing local urban sustainability indicators.

The toolkit, Circles of Sustainability, is being developed in partnership with the UN Global Compact Cities Programme, which is based at RMIT.

It brings together city leaders, citizens groups and businesses to identify and debate critical issues and to set targets for progress towards sustainable development.

Developed through pilot projects in cities worldwide, the Circles of Sustainability method has been adopted as part of the UN Global Compact Cities Programme approach to resolving intractable urban development issues.

The pilot projects addressed issues such as sustainable tourism in French cities, sustainable urban planning in Mongolia and infrastructure for clean water in cities in India and the United States.

Professor Paul James, Director of RMIT's Global Cities Research Institute, said the last decade had seen enormous growth in the use of sustainability indicators.

"There are corporate-sustainability indices, city-liveability indices, community-sustainability indices, waste-disposal indices … the list goes on."

He said that developing an adequate indicator set had become a difficult task. The size, scope and number of indicator sets could cause an organisation to lose focus and not use available local resources that could support sustainable practices.

The Circles of Sustainability toolkit supports local communities in developing a means to track sustainable practices in relation to a global framework while encouraging the use of locally relevant quantitative with qualitative measures of sustainability.

It aims to balance economic and environmental sustainability concerns with the political and cultural dimensions of the issue.

When completed in 2013, the toolkit will be an open-access resource for governments, non-government organisations and businesses debating issues and actions required for sustainable urban development.

The Circles of Sustainability project team is led by Professor Paul James and includes contributions by Professor Lin Padgham and Associate Professor James Thom from RMIT's School of Computer Science and Information technology, Professor Hepu Deng from the School of Business IT and Logistics, and Research Fellows Dr Andy Scerri, Dr Liam Magee and Dr Sarah Hickmott.

The project is supported by industry partners FujiXerox Australia, Cambridge International College, Microsoft Australia, Angusta Systems and the City of Melbourne.

New research shows Australia’s skills supply and demand picture remains patchy.

Western Australian councils have called for a state-wide governance review to revitalise the local government reform process.

Shires across New South Wales have agreed to form a single association representing local government in the state.

The opportunity to comment on a sustainable population strategy for Australia is coming to a close.