Briefs
We want more feedback please
Thank you to those who have already supplied us with valuable feedback and constructive criticism about last month's National General Assembly. It is a good start. In order to make next year's National General Assembly even better, we need more people to give their feedback on the experience of the NGA this year. We are already starting preparations for next year and really want to hear your views.
Please take a few minutes to fill out the online survey questionnaire here so that we can continue to improve the NGA each year. Thank you for your assistance.
No carbon price before 2012
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has ruled out any kind of carbon price before 2012 as she prepares to release a new policy on climate change (Fairfax).
Wind farms get clean bill of health
An independent study released this week should put to rest claims that wind farms can make people sick, according to Australia's peak clean energy body. The study, by the National Health and Medical Research Council, found no evidence that wind turbines had a direct effect on people's health.
Clean Energy Council Policy Director, Russell Marsh, said that more than 100,000 turbines had been installed across the world in over three decades, delivering clean power to millions of homes in more than 80 countries.
"There have been claims over the last couple of years from opponents of wind farms that noise and other factors associated with wind turbines can make people sick," Mr Marsh said. "As this latest independent research has shown, there is no credible evidence that wind turbines have a direct effect on people's health.
"The study is consistent with a statement several months ago from Victoria's Chief Medical Officer, Dr John Carnie, other international studies and acoustic research which repeatedly show wind turbines do not produce enough noise to directly affect humans," he said.
WALGA wins best in biodiversity
WALGA won the best in biodiversity category in the World Environment Day Awards. WALGA's Perth Biodiversity Project and South West Biodiversity Project were awarded the Department of Sustainability and Environment Biodiversity Award.
"The aim of the projects is to increase the capacity of Local Government in its role as a significant land manager to achieve measurable and sustainable biodiversity conservation outcomes," said WALGA President and Mayor, Troy Pickard.
Mayor Pickard said that the success of the projects can be attributed to the involvement and collaboration between all spheres of government, industry and community groups.
"The identification of biodiversity assets in the early stages of land use planning prevents these natural assets being seen as a development constraint later in the planning framework," he said.
Judges from the competition said that the Perth and South West Biodiversity Projects provide an innovative and effective approach to biodiversity conservation that could have a widespread application throughout Australia.
The awards were presented across 14 categories to individuals, schools, community groups, businesses and Local Governments, highlighting top environmental initiatives and programs from across Australia.
Established in 2000, the awards program is now in its eleventh year, and continues to acknowledge action taken at a local level to address global environmental issues.
Learn more about local government and sustainability projects at Sustainable Councils 2010. You can now register for the conference that will be held from 6-7 September at the Sydney Convention Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour.
Productivity Commission talks with local government
The Productivity Commission has held talks with local government associations around Australia as part of a study into Australia's planning, zoning and development assessment systems.
The study is focusing on the operation of planning and zoning systems of the states and territories, in particular their impact on business compliance costs, competition, and the efficiency and effectiveness of how cities function.
A spokesperson for the commission said that it had also met with federal and state government agencies and businesses in state capitals, and was now assessing which major regional centres to visit as part of its consultation process.
Councils and other interested parties have until July 16 to respond to an issues paper released by the Productivity Commission as part of the study.
The issues paper questions what effect the removal of local government from decision-making processes has had on the efficiency and effectiveness of how cities function.
The paper also discusses what impact the systems have on competition. The issues paper can be accessed here. The Productivity Commission is due to release a draft report by the end of October.
The LIFE Awards
The LIFE Awards, held annually in conjunction with International World Suicide Prevention Day, recognise the outstanding contribution to suicide prevention in Australia.
The Awards are a prestigious national event that attracts guests from all areas, including business, industry, media, government, youth and medicine - all with an interest in suicide prevention.
Each year the organisers see a wide spectrum of nominations that range from the more mainstream programs to local "grass root" programs, which are vital to aiding in the reduction of suicide within our communities. Each year they receive more nominations than in previous years, and in 2010 they hope to achieve this again.
If you could please pass this message on through your networks as far and wide as possible it would be appreciated by the organisers. This year the Awards night will be held at the Sydney Opera House on the evening of Saturday, September 11th.
For more information, please click here.
Cowra Shire Council uses Intelligent Access Program (IAP)
Cowra Shire Council is situated in central western New South Wales and occupies approximately 2,800 sq km with a population of approximately 13,100. Agriculture is the major economic activity in the Shire. The Shire Council recognises the importance of the transport industry to its economy and works closely with operators to identify, and where appropriate, approve safer, more efficient road access.
Cowra Shire has approximately 1,300 km of local roads, including 90 bridges and major culverts. It adopts a hierarchical approach to each local road having regard to traffic volumes as well as the importance of the road. Cowra Shire has a policy of supporting access for Higher Mass Limits (HML) vehicles on local roads which do not involve travel over a bridge or other structure.
A transport operator who used the Intelligent Access Program (IAP), supported by an IAP Service Provider, applied for access to GrainCorp's silo on Noonbinna Rd, Noonbinna, which is located 550 metres from the Olympic Highway. The IAP provider gave Cowra Shire the high level of assurance that the transport operator would be monitored as the Council required. The Council was assured that if the operators did not comply with route access conditions they would be identified. Consequently Cowra Shire approved the request for IAP fitted HML vehicles access to the GrainCorp silo at Noonbinna.
Cowra Shire's decision will mean transport operators transporting grain to GrainCorp's Noonbinna site will be able to increase payloads by about 12 per cent. This will reduce the number of road trips and provide benefits of reduced fuel consumption, environmental emissions and road safety.
Cowra Shire would like to be in a position to assess bridges on routes where HML access is sought and is willing to work with others, who have a stake in extending the HML road network, to develop the means to provide a funded bridge assessment program.
2010 National Disability Awards
The National Disability Awards are open. Please nominate a person or an organisation in this area who deserves to be acknowledged. Nominations for the 2010 National Disability Awards close on 16 July 2010.
Nominations are open to people with a disability who have achieved something remarkable or made a significant contribution to their community, and people within their community who have contributed to the disability sector. The National Disability Awards are part of the Australian Government's celebration of International Day of People with Disability.
The 2010 Award categories are: Minister's Lifelong Achievement Award; Young Disability Challenge Award; Business Award; Local Government Award; Social Inclusion Award; and Accessible Housing Award. For details on these, please see the website below. For instance, the Local Government Award is for local government authorities who have succeeded in implementing substantial changes to improve physical, social, economic and cultural access and inclusion for people with disability and their families.
Nominations close Friday 16 July 2010
For more information on the Awards or to nominate someone for a National Disability Award click here or phone 1800 440 385.
You can show your support for the Awards and IDPwD by becoming a Facebook fan at www.facebook.com/idpwd or following updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/idpwd.
New rules for access to nationally significant infrastructure
Parliament has passed a long-awaited package of reforms to Australia's rules governing access to nationally significant infrastructure to promote new investment and competition, the Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs, Craig Emerson, said earlier this week.
Dr Emerson said the National Access Regime is a statutory process allowing third parties to seek access to monopoly infrastructure of national significance - such as ports and railways - where it would be uneconomical for them to duplicate that infrastructure.
"These reforms will increase regulatory certainty for infrastructure owners, shoring up and encouraging vital investment in Australia's export infrastructure," he said. "At the same time they will reduce the time lags involved in deciding whether or not third parties can obtain access to existing export infrastructure, promoting competition in the national economy... Processes under the National Access Regime can go on for years - these reforms introduce binding time limits for decision makers and streamline the review processes."
The legislation also allows infrastructure owners to seek upfront decisions about the eligibility for declaration as an asset to which third-party access might be sought - before the infrastructure is built. It also allows fixed principles in access undertakings to ensure longer-term certainty about the access arrangements that will apply to major infrastructure facilities.
New broadband sites named
On 8 July, NBN Co, the company established to design, build and operate the national broadband network, announced 19 locations for the next stage of its rollout on the mainland. These second release sites comprise 14 new locations and five sites adjacent to existing first release sites.
The new sites are:
Victoria - Bacchus Marsh, South Morang (Melbourne);
Queensland - Brisbane (inner north), Springfield Lakes, Toowoomba;
NSW - Riverstone (western Sydney), Coffs Harbour;
South Australia - Modbury, Prospect;
Western Australia - Victoria Park (Perth), Geraldton, Mandurah;
Northern Territory - Casuarina; and
ACT - Gungahlin
Construction in the second release locations is scheduled to commence in the second quarter of 2011.
Further details can be accessed here
New Values in the Australian Public Service: A Chance to Put Your Views Forward
As part of the Ahead of the Game Blueprint for the Reform of Australian Government Administration released in March 2010, the Government has committed to revising and improving the APS Values. The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) has been asked to consult widely to develop a smaller, tighter set of values that are meaningful, memorable and effective in driving change.
We now have a great opportunity to make real and systematic improvement to how we serve the Government and the community. To help the APSC do this, they are asking for your ideas as someone who uses Government services.
How to comment or make a submission
You can download a discussion paper, setting out some key questions, from www.apsc.gov.au/ourvalues. They would be grateful for your perspectives and ideas about how they can improve their values and, thereby, the way they do business.
Comments will be accepted until 2 August 2010.
Excellence in Local Government Leadership Program
Expressions of interest for a new Excellence in Local Government Leadership Program are now open!
The three week intensive residential program will be launched in Melbourne on the 22nd November 2010 and will welcome 80 Mayors, CEOs and Directors from across Australia and New Zealand into their first local government specific program.
The Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) is a unique educational institution dedicated to promoting outstanding public sector leadership. Funded by the Australian and New Zealand Government and working through a network of 15 universities and business schools, ANZSOG has been offering a highly successful three week residential program for senior leaders from both sides of the Tasman annually since 2002.
Up to now, only national and state officials have been able to take part in this program. Thanks to ANZSOG's involvement with the new Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government, an equivalent program specifically tailored to the distinctiveness and diversity of local government will be offered from this year.
For your diary: 22 November-10 December 2010, Melbourne.
Further information here or ANZSOG's Project Director, Monica Pfeffer on (03) 8344 1989
Safety concerns
One in four adults (or four million Australians) felt unsafe or avoided being in certain situations alone such as using public transport at night or walking after dark in their neighbourhood, according to the most recent ABS statistics. Most of these people said they avoided being alone in these situations because they thought it was unsafe. Feeling unsafe was highest among adults who had recently been a victim of crime, and also amongst women and adults living in more disadvantaged areas.
More details on this topic and the following three are available in the June edition of Australian Social Trends, 2010 (cat. no. 4102.0), available here
Environmental concerns
The Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that more than eight out of ten Australian adults are concerned about at least one environmental problem, with seven out of ten concerned about climate change. While people aged 65 and over were less likely to be concerned about climate change, young adults (aged 18-24) were the least likely to have taken steps to reduce their electricity consumption or sort their garbage for recyclable waste.
Underemployment
The ABS also says that the recent economic downturn resulting from the GFC saw a rise in the number of underemployed people from 5.9 per cent to 7.8 per cent of the labour force. Although this has declined since the peak of the GFC to 7.2 per cent in May 2010, this still meant there were 837,000 people who wanted to work more hours and were available to do so, exceeding the number of people who were unemployed (610,000). Underemployment is highest amongst women and younger people.
Child care
According to the ABS, the proportion of children who attend formal child care (such as long day care or after school care) has increased from 17 per cent to 22 per cent over the decade as more mothers join the workforce. Overall, grandparents were the most commonly used form of child care, but children spent less time on average in the care of grandparents than in formal child care.
The Mayor of Reykjavik
Jon Gnaar was a comedian and actor and is now the Mayor of Reykjavik, Iceland. He was best known for playing a television and film character called Georg Bjarnfredarson, who was a nasty, bald, middle-aged, Swedish-educated Marxist whose childhood was ruined by his mother, a militant feminist.
Gnaar's Best Party received 34.7 per cent of the vote in the recent elections, and six out of 15 council seats. His platform included free towels at public swimming pools and a drug-free parliament by 2020. He must now form a coalition. He will be leading the 320,000 citizens of Reykjavik through an economic fallout that began in 2008 when Iceland's banks crashed.
Men's health
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, life expectancy for Australian males has increased to over 79 years, yet remains more than four years less than for women, as men have higher death rates from nearly all major causes. Men's general health risk profile was also poorer than that of women, with men more likely to be smokers, to drink at dangerous levels, or to be overweight. (ABS)
Wardrobe malfunction in council library
For those males who are managing to lose weight, investment in correspondingly smaller sized clothes (or at least a belt) is a good idea, as the following incident at an English council library demonstrates: the Lord Mayor of Leicester, Councillor Colin Hall, was visiting a local library on Tuesday morning when his trousers fell down.
Cr Hall was a guest at a Summer Showcase network which works with teachers and education institutions to promote greater understanding of global perspectives, a city council spokesman confirmed on Wednesday.
He said that Cr Hall offered his "deepest apologies" for anyone who might have been offended when his trousers came loose and fell down at the event. A spokesman explained: "He was not wearing a belt and the trousers came loose and fell."
Clarification
Last week's Japanese texting item in International News referred to Shari Walsh as a researcher in the area. Shari has contacted us to clarify that her research was mentioned in a recent press release by a mobile phone company and has been totally misconstrued by the media. She has not, and never has been, associated with diagnosing any texting 'disorders' or problems arising from texting. Her research focusses on psychological reasons underlying young people's mobile phone use in general.
Quote of the week
"My hearse ought to be drawn by all the animals that I have not eaten." - George Bernard Shaw, writer (and famous vegetarian), when lying sick and near death.
International news 
Earlier this week, just before the Pamplona bull-running was due to begin, a large crowd of people wearing only their underwear lay down in the street. Their bodies formed the shape of a huge bull. This was a protest against the traditional Spanish bull-running and its inhumanity to man and beast.
In the annual event, thousands of thrill-seekers are chased by bulls that invariably end up goring some humans on the cobble-stoned streets en route to bloody deaths in the ring. However, across Spain, the number of bullfights has dropped from about 1,000 in 2008 to a projected 800 or less this year, as local governments that have always subsidised small-town bullfights cut budgets because of declining tax revenue. Bullfights, or corridas in Spanish, have become a luxury when cuts must be made by town councils to maintain funding for schools, social programs and road repairs.
Provincial legislators will vote on a proposed ban on bullfighting in mid-July. This would shut down Catalonia's last bullring in the city of Barcelona, though it would not ban other bull spectacles such as correbou, where people chase bulls through the streets, as described above, and bouembolat, where bulls are forced to run around with flaming wax balls on their horns.
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