Coming soon! - The 2010 National General Assembly

Registrations are rolling in each day for the 2010 National General Assembly of Local Government (NGA) in Canberra. If you have not registered yet, it's time to do so.

The NGA is being held against the background of the the Government's response to the Henry Review and the coming federal election, not to mention the expected simultaneous visit to Canberra by the President of the United States, Barack Obama. Accommodation is likely to be in short supply so we encourage you to make your arrangements quickly. Information on accommodation in Canberra can be found on the NGA website (see below) or in the NGA brochure.

The NGA will begin with a reception to welcome guests on the evening of Monday 14 June. During the course of the three following days, delegates will have the opportunity to discuss and debate the implications of Australia's projected population growth and rapid ageing of our population.

There will be the opportunity to listen to the opinions of experts, such as Professor Peter MacDonald from the Australian National University on population policy, the leaders of all of the main political parties and other Ministers.

There will be sessions on the impact of climate change on coastal areas, managing the "NIMBY" (Not in My Back Yard) phenomena and new models of regional governance. Wendy Harmer will facilitate a discussion about women in politics and there will be book launches and breakfasts held by ALGWA and ICLEI.

For further information, please visit: http://nga.alga.asn.au/event/2010

NBN Co to address the National General Assembly, and other NBN developments

One of the presenters at the National General Assembly is Mike Kaiser, Principal, Government Relations and External Affairs, NBN Co. so it is timely to update readers on the considerable braches of work being performed in respect of the NBN.

As reported in a recent edition of ALGA News, the Australian Government recently released the NBN Implementation Study conducted for it by KPMG/McKinsey & Co. The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has sought comments from the public by this coming Thursday 27 May 2010. ALGA is currently examining the report and will update readers on any submission it may make.

In addition, work is progressing on the Australian Government's policy to mandate fibre in greenfields estates, from 1 July 2010. The legislation that would implement the policy is currently before the Federal Parliament, and late last week, the Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Legislation Committee released its report into the proposed legislation.

Of interest to local government is the discussion in the report of the potential involvement of local government and the specific recommendation that 'the Government continue its work with state abd local government planning authorities to ensure a nationally consistent approach to requirements for telecommunications infrastructure in new developments' (Recommendation 1). The Committee made 6 recommendations and its report can be accessed here.

In addition, NBN Co. and the Communications Alliance continue to seek feedback on technical and other implementation aspects of the NBN, and ATUG is continuing its round of NBN and Digital Economy Forums across Australia (its calendar can be accessed here).

ALGA will endeavour to provide further updates on the NBN in future editions of ALGA News.

Helping Torres Strait communities with climate change

Indigenous communities in the tropical north of Australia are amongst the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, a new report has found. The "Risks from Climate Change to Indigenous Communities in the Tropical North of Australia" report finds that climate change will have a significant impact on Indigenous communities in the tropical north.

Island communities in the Torres Strait will receive tidal gauges to assist them with monitoring sea levels through $1 million in funding announced last week. King tides, wind and extreme events, as well as the rise in sea levels are causing tidal inundation and erosion on islands across the Torres Strait. The gauges will monitor mean sea levels on at least four islands, providing key information in order to assess tidal variation, potential sea level rise and to support planning decisions. Operating costs for the gauges will be jointly funded by the Federal Government through FaHCSIA and the Torres Strait Regional Authority.

The Federal Government also announced last week $400,000 for new research into the impacts of climate change on Torres Strait communities. The Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water, Senator Penny Wong, said the research would help build scientific knowledge about the risk of inundation to local communities.

Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, said that Torres Strait communities were particularly vulnerable to the impacts of rising sea levels, but were proactively addressing the issue.

"I commend the work of the Torres Strait Regional Authority to-date, which will form the foundation for initiatives that help local communities prepare for the impacts of climate change," Ms Macklin said.

There are only three weeks to go until the National General Assembly of Local Government (NGA). In the lead up to a federal poll later this year, this is certainly an interesting time to be in Canberra.

Discussion at the NGA this year will focus on the three broad themes of population, participation and productivity, or "the 3 Ps" - the themes emphasised in the recent Intergenerational Report. We have received a large number of motions from councils which will be debated at the NGA and which will help set the local government election strategy.

We are fortunate to have the ABC's Kerry O'Brien giving a keynote speech as well as other leading members of the Australian journalism community providing their perspective on the upcoming poll. Anthony Albanese, Tony Abbott, Warren Truss, Penny Wong, Bob Brown and Bill Shorten are all confirmed to address the NGA - it is the strongest line up of key federal politicians ever assembled at a local government conference. The Prime Minister is still considering his invitation given the unknown impact on his schedule of a possible visit from Barrack Obama. Regardless of this impact, he will be participating in the Australian Council of Local Government Meeting and dinner at the conclusion of the NGA.

Registrations close soon on 31 May (late registration is possible but will incur a fee) so if you are interested in attending - particularly if your council is not currently attending, then get in quick. I look forward to seeing you in Canberra in a few weeks time.

Cr Geoff Lake
ALGA President

Briefs

Funding round open for more digital services for regional, rural and remote Australia

The Australian Government has called for proposals to fund projects in regional Australia. These projects will develop service delivery solutions for education, health and emergency services.

A second round of funding under the Digital Regions Initiative has been announced which requires full applications by 14 July 2010. The program will foster partnerships between state, territory and local government to enhance the way essential services are delivered. Regional, rural and remote Australian communities will benefit from new use of innovative digital technology solutions.

The key focus of the initiative is on improving service delivery through the use of innovative digital enablement technology. Projects will be expected to offer sustainable solutions and longer term benefits for regional Australians. Examples may include:

• remote medical consultation, diagnosis and treatment to address regional skills shortages and enhance patient care
• digital resources and services such as teleconferencing to improve access to educational opportunities for regional, rural and remote students and teachers
• digital technologies to improve emergency and disaster response.

Eleven projects totalling $32.9 million were offered funding under round one of the Digital Regions Initiative including an ambulance connect service for South Australia, bushfire spotting and response technologies in Victoria and chronic disease management systems in the Hunter New England region of NSW.

Further information on the Digital Regions Initiative is available online, to be included on a mailing list please send your details to digitalregions@dbcde.gov.au . Information sessions will be held in June 2010 in each state and territory capital, please see the website above for details and how on register

The information sessions will provide a background on DRI and a discussion of the guidelines for Round Two. The guidelines will be provided at the session. The guidelines and further information on DRI are available at www.dbcde.gov.au/digitalregions.

Please note there will be only ONE information session in each capital, however we are happy to receive questions via digitalregions@dbcde.gov.au or please call 02 6271 1450.

To confirm your attendance at a session and receive details of the information session location please e-mail your full contact details to digitalregions@dbcde.gov.au with 'RSVP [please insert location] Info Session' eg 'RSVP Sydney Info Session' as the subject heading.

CSIRO's solar-power tower

In a major step forward for Australian research into solar energy, CSIRO is building the largest solar-power tower of its type in the world at the National Solar Energy Centre in Newcastle. The site will consist of around 450 mirrors (heliostats) that will direct solar heat onto a 30m-high tower to produce super-heated compressed air for a Brayton Cycle turbine.

"The new technology will pave the way for solar power of the future - solar power that requires only the sun and air to create electricity," said the Director of CSIRO's Energy Transformed Flagship, Dr Alex Wonhas. "The field will be used to refine the technology in order to make it a cheaper, more efficient energy source that is suitable for many desert locations in Australia, and the world.

"Most solar thermal power stations require water to operate a steam turbine to produce electricity. Our Brayton Cycle technology does not need water," Dr Wonhas said, "This new facility will allow us to improve our science by using a real-world, operating solar thermal field to test ways to make the process more efficient and reduce the cost of this clean technology."

CSIRO received $5m in funding from the Australian Solar Institute (ASI) - an Australian Government initiative - to build the field (to be fully operational by March 2011) and to conduct research over two years.

More Federal Money To Fix Local Black Spots

Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese and Dobell MP Craig Thomson have announced that the Rudd Labor Government will provide $130,000 to fix two dangerous black spots.

The approved projects in the Federal electorate of Dobell are: 300m section of Carlton Road to the North of the Community Baptist Church entrance at Holgate: $80,000 to provide a non-skid seal, install additional signs and upgrade delineation; and Intersection of Anzac Avenue and Margaret Street at Wyong: $50,000 to close the median.

All projects were recommended by a panel of independent road safety experts and will be delivered during the course of the coming financial year (2010/2011).

Mr Thomson said that since being elected, the Rudd Labor Government has allocated more than $1.3 million to fix five black spots across the Dobell electorate.

"This investment is helping to make our local roads even safer for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians, with three of these projects already completed," said Mr Thompson. "And the good thing about our Black Spot program is that anyone can suggest an intersection or section of road they believe should be considered for a safety upgrade."

Councils fear 'WA Inc' style planning corruption

Six western suburbs councils in Perth are concerned at potential problems in planning control, reports Beatrice Thomas in the West Australian, and they claim that the State Government's plans for new expert panels will lead to corruption like that of the WA Inc era.

Under the new system, which is before Parliament, approval of any development worth more than $15 million in the City of Perth and $7 million anywhere else would be handed to development assessment panels. They would comprise three experts and two councillors from the relevant local government.

In the opinion of Cottesloe mayor, Kevin Morgan, the Government's policy would lay the foundations for a scale of corruption that "would dwarf WA Inc".

"It's going to flag to all and sundry that these five people are going to determine (applications) in the district for the next four or five years are going to no doubt be exposed to the usual forms of lobbying," he said. Representatives from the councils met Premier Colin Barnett early this week to discuss the issue.

Council bids for right to secrecy

Courier-Mail journalist, Alison Sandy, has voiced concern about Brisbane City Council potential secrecy under the State Government new laws, debated in Parliament last week. Premier Anna Bligh's reforms to make government more open and accountable a year ago are already being watered down, with an amendment refusing the public access to possible future plans, problems or issues affecting them at a local level.

Under the City of Brisbane Bill, the council's civic cabinet, comprising Cr Newman and LNP councillors heading up various committees, will be exempt from the Right to Information Act in the same way as State Government's cabinet. Local Government Minister Desley Boyle said Lord Mayor Campbell Newman "mounted a reasonable argument that the scale, size and structure of Brisbane City Council is unlike any other local government in Australia and is in fact more akin to a state government".

Cr Newman said the exemption was in the "best interest of Brisbane ratepayers". "Council is a huge organisation, with a $3.4 billion annual budget, and it needs to be able to protect its core decisions in the same way as similar-sized commercial and public sector organisations," he said.

However, commercial-in-confidence exemptions already exist under the Act. BCC Opposition Leader Shayne Sutton has broken Labor ranks by opposing the exemption. She said her position had been made very clear to the State Government.

"Local residents already have trouble getting information from Brisbane City Council as it is, this will make it much more difficult," she said.

Cycling in NSW

NSW's cycling plan promises $158 million over 10 years for new bike paths that will close gaps in Sydney's cycleways. While the City of Sydney and the main cycling body welcomed the NSW Bike Plan, the Greens told the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday that it was a paltry sum that showed only a token commitment to cycling.

The Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, welcomed the announcement. "I hope that it will complement the City of Sydney's $76 million, 200-kilometre network now under construction. If the bike plan co-ordinates with the work we've done with inner-Sydney councils on connected routes that get cyclists where they need to go, the plan will be a powerful tool in reducing congestion and emissions, and improving health."

Richard Birdsey, vice-president of Bicycles NSW also welcomed the plan. "We've been working with the government for some time and we're really starting to see the shift towards having bicycles as a practical alternative to cars, which is what we need."

But he emphasised that cycleways separated from traffic were crucial to make cycling mainstream. Many of the 2300 kilometres of existing cycleways were on the shoulder of roads or ran through residential streets. The Greens MP, Lee Rhiannon, called the plan "an insult to the cycling public".

The state government welcomed feedback on the plan, which it said would help achieve its "ambitious" target of 5 per cent travel by bike for short trips in Sydney by 2016.

Environmental decline report

Ninety per cent of people surveyed for a recent report think that preventing environmental decline is as important, or more important, than economic growth, reports Yvonne Gardiner in this week's Ipswich Advertiser.

In the "Managing what matters: The cost of environmental decline in South-East Queensland" report, prepared by Marsden Jacob Associates for SEQ Catchments, the majority of the 921 respondents were also willing to pay about $300 a year extra in the future to help improve their environment.

The report puts the "social" costs of decline as high as $5.2 billion between now and 2031. "By 2031, the annual costs to each household attributable to a decline in resource condition could be as high as $290," it stated. The survey results indicate that SEQ households are willing to pay that amount (about $5.60/week) via higher rates, taxes and costs for goods and services to maintain the current level of social values attributable to the natural environment.

The report also suggests that developers should be required to provide more to offset their detrimental environmental activities.

A key message of the report was that the condition of critical natural assets - water, air and open space - was still declining, because of rising population growth and associated increase in economic activity, and climate change.

Alcohol and junk food ads to stay

The Federal Government has considered a suggested ban on alcohol and junk food advertising and has rejected it. The argument is that both alcohol and junk food can be consumed in moderation, whereas even one cigarette can harm a person.

The tax on cigarettes increased by 25 per cent last month. The future mandatory plain packaging of cigarette packets is not an idea that is being embraced with enthusiasm by Imperial Tobacco Australia, whose spokesman said that it was "disproportionate and misguided".

The government is still considering having health warnings on alcohol packaging. Meanwhile, the government is dealing with the increasing evidence of harm from even small amounts of alcohol by promoting community awareness and attempting to persuade the industry to have more stringent self-regulation.

Twenty years ago, one in fourteen adult Australians was obese, and now it is one in five. Asked about the problems with obesity, Nicola Roxon said: "while there's growing evidence of the harm, there's still very contested evidence about which interventions work."

This is true, and while it would seem that getting enough exercise and eating healthy foods are crucial, some believe that simply giving up sugar would make us all thin, as well as healthy. David Gillespie's lucid and witty book, Sweet Poison (Penguin, 2008) tells how he lost 40 kilos simply by giving up sugar. Without doing anything else, he lost a pound a week until arriving at a healthy weight, and then his weight stabilised. (Yes, he drank alcohol, but gave up soft drinks and juices.)

Table sugar, he explains in the book, is made up of glucose and fructose. Fructose bypasses all the usual processes for turning carbohydrates into energy, and is fast tracked into fatty acids and then body fat. Gillespie presents much persuasive evidence that fructose consumption is responsible for hormonal cancers (such as breast and prostate) and heart disease.

Sugar was so rare in nature (pre-Industrial Revolution) that evidently it was not necessary for our appetite centres to even register it. So people can eat massive amounts without ever feeling full. Gillespie observes that many of us are addicted to sugar. It's certainly true for some of us that the more sugar we eat, the more we want. He claims that food manufacturers exploit our sugar addiction by lacing it through 'non-sweet' products, such as bread, sauces, soups and cereals.

Perhaps in future we will see chocolate bars in plain brown wrappers and grave health warnings on products containing sugar.

Big houses make you fat?

Our love affair with McMansions is making us overweight, writes Vikki Campion in the Daily Telegraph this week. Jozefa Sobski, Regional Development Australia, Sydney Committee member, told a food security forum of western Sydney councils yesterday that McMansions were the death of backyard vege gardens, with those living in concrete jungles deprived of easy access to healthy foods.

"They are such large houses they are an obscenity on the landscape," she said. "We need fewer McDonalds and Red Roosters that most councils approve readily because it brings commerce into a region. They are the cause of a lot of our health problems."

"Enormous houses with tiny backyards stop people growing kitchen gardens," Ms Sobski pointed out.

Western Sydney Region of Councils executive director Jeremy Goff said the forum's aim was to find ways to slash obesity rates and not to isolate people who live in big houses and eat take-away food.

If I've interpreted David Gillespie's book Sweet Poison above, correctly, you could keep your McMansion, and just stop eating sugar in it (as well as out of it) and you'll be fine.

Penrith's magnetism

Penrith is officially a magnetic place. Penrith Council's Magnetic Places program won a NSW Local Government and Shires Association award, in the category of Integrated Cultural Policy Implementation, at the 2010 Local Government Cultural Awards.

"Magnetic Places is an initiative led by Penrith Council's Neighbourhood Renewal Program, which has been recognised as a leader in its field," Mayor Kevin Crameri said. "Penrith Council was proud to invest $35,000 funding in the community for these Magnetic Places programs, but the events were a success because the community embraced it so wholeheartedly. The program has transformed public spaces into magnetic, creative and meaningful places for people to meet."

Projects were held across the region, including at Kingswood Park, and included cultural events and reconnecting with personal histories. The council received a unique handmade silk wall hanging commissioned by the Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW.

Aboriginal healthcare gets a lift

Moreton Bay Region's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community has welcomed $1 million in Federal Government funding, which it hopes will close the life expectancy gap between indigenous and non-Indigenous residents.

Pine Rivers Press reports that part of the funding will be used to fit out and staff the North Lakes hub of the Institute of Urban Indigenous Health, which combines several existing indigenous healthcare services.

Redcliffe elder, Uncle Peter Bird, said that the institute, based at the North Lakes Health Precinct, would greatly benefit the local Aboriginal community. "We need a helping hand from the Federal Government, the State Government and the local government and all of those who have the power to make this happen," he said.

Federal Indigenous Health Minister, Warren Snowdon, said the $1 million would be split between Logan and the Moreton Bay region, and that the institute, which would open this year, would increase indigenous access to GPs, nurses, allied health and drug and alcohol services.