Productivity Commission to look at carbon pricing

The Australian Government has requested that the Productivity Commission undertake a study on the effective carbon prices that result from emissions and energy reduction policies in Australia and other key economies. The final report is to be presented to Government by the end of May 2011. Further details about the study are available from the Commission's website.

Discussion paper on National Water Initiative implementation

The National Water Commission continues to work on its assessment of the extent to which actions under the National Water Initiative (NWI) has improved the sustainable management of Australian water resources, contributed to the national interest and had an impact on regional, rural and urban communities. Interested councils and other stakeholders have just over a week left to make submission on the National Water Initiative 2011 Biennial Assessment of Progress in Implementation Discussion paper. Details can be found here. This is part of the ongoing work of the National Water Commission which is required to regularly report to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on progress of NWI implementation and advise COAG on matters to better realise the NWI objectives and outcomes. The Commission has made two previous assessments in 2007 and 2009. The Intergovernmental Agreement on a National Water Initiative was established in 2004.

Litter prevention award for ACT

The ACT's Department of the Environment, Climate Change, Energy and Water (DECCEW) won two awards - the 'Dame Phyllis Frost' Litter Prevention Award and also the Young Legends Award - at the recent 2010 Keep Australia Beautiful Sustainable Cities Awards.

ALGA Chief Executive Adrian Beresford-Wylie presented Senior Manager Sustainability Program from DECCEW Ann Lyons Wright with the award in the presence of Federal Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities Tony Burke.

The ACT Government helps schools to save energy and water, improve waste management, protect biodiversity and cut greenhouse gas emissions through the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative ACT (AuSSI-ACT). AuSSI-ACT provides advice and assistance to the 114 ACT government and non government schools participating in the program.

Under the program, nine accredited waste wise schools showed enthusiastic students assisting in reducing waste sent to landfill. Collectively, these schools used to send 282,000 litres of waste to landfill. They now send 119,000 litres of waste to landfill - a total reduction of 58%. In terms of water, a total of 22 schools have been accredited as ACTSmart water-wise schools. In total, these schools have reduced water consumption by 30,306 kilolitres or reduced costs by $61,218 per annum (approx 37%).

Local government plays a vitally important role in the day to day lives of the Australian people, but what many Australians do not realise is that local government is the only level of government not recognised in the Australian Constitution.

Local government is the backbone of local communities and local economies and delivers infrastructure and services which everybody needs. Because we are right there working in and amongst the community, we engage with our communities and respond to their needs. Councillors are drawn from and live in their local community. During the Global Financial Crisis, local government was called on to promote economic activity across the nation by delivering $1 billion of the Australian Government's Stimulus package at the local level. We are called on to deliver services, on behalf of the Commonwealth and state governments because we are innovative, responsive, flexible and efficient.

Ongoing concern regarding the Commonwealth Government's power to directly fund community initiatives through local government makes constitutional reform vital, in order to secure the services that our communities need. The High Court's decision in July last year in the case Pape v Commissioner of Taxation has brought into question the Commonwealth's legal ability to fund local government directly, because it is not included in the Constitution. Such a result would have a devastating impact on our local communities, particularly those in rural and regional areas. Ensuring that the services and infrastructure needed by communities can be delivered by local government lies at the heart of our pursuit of constitutional reform.

Including local government in the Australian Constitution will protect the local services that we take for granted and ensure that councils have the funding security to provide the level of services that local communities need and deserve. Local road funding is currently provided under the Roads to Recovery Program and community infrastructure funding under the Local Community Infrastructure Program. By any measure these two programs have been extremely successful examples of the partnership between the Australian Government and local government.

The Australian Local Government Association has been involved in extensive consultation with local government, the broader community and state and federal politicians. Prime Minister Gillard has promised a dual referendum during the life of this parliament - the people will be asked to vote on two issues - the constitutional recognition of local government and recognition of Indigenous Australians as the nation's first people.

The Prime Minister's announcement and indications of bipartisan support are enormous steps toward a referendum, but we do not underestimate the task ahead - a majority of voters in a majority of states and an overall majority of voters, need to vote yes for a referendum to succeed. Our research shows that many Australians, particularly young Australians, have little understanding of the Constitution or the process required to change it. There is a need to educate the public about the Constitution - not only what it contains, but that it should be a living document which needs amendment every now and then to remain appropriate to the Australia of the 21^st Century.

I will be making constitutional reform a priority in my term as your president. The clear objective of this reform will be a positive result in our referendum so that all of Australia's local communities get the chance to achieve their full potential.

Cr Genia McCaffery
ALGA President

Briefs

Making cities resilient

The United Nations "Making Cities Resilient Campaign" for local government will be launched in Australia later this month by Margareta Wahlstrom (Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Disaster Risk Reduction). The session will be held at the Cairns Regional Council's Civic Reception Rooms, starting at about midday on November 30.

This is a United Nations Program to help cities all over the world to become more "disaster resilient". Cairns Regional Council nominated for the campaign in July this year - becoming the first Australian city to join this important program. Cairns Regional Council and the UN Special Representative encourages other local government to come and participate, sign up, get more information and support resilience building in your community.

Information available here.

ALGA Board member Cr Bob Abbot will be attending next Friday's Ministerial council for Police and Emergency Management - Emergency Mangement in Canberra.

New Mayor for Adelaide

Adelaide's Lord Mayor-elect Stephen Yarwood says the City Council and the State Government have a "clean slate opportunity" to grow the CBD. "We have six new councillors and a generational change mayor with no political affiliations or no political aspirations," Mr Yarwood said. "My job is to help build a city and I think it is a clean-slate opportunity." The relationship between the City Council and the State Government has been strained since the council lost its planning powers for projects costing more than $10 million to the Development Assessment Commission in 2008. Mr Yarwood, elected to Deputy Lord Mayor in 2009, said improving public transport and cycling lanes were two of his highest priorities for the city. (Source: City Messenger)

Healthy Spaces and Places Health Promotion Finalist

After recently securing the President's Award from the ACT division of the Planning Institute of Australia, Healthy Spaces and Places (HS&P) was nominated as a finalist in the ACT Government's 2010 Health Promotion Awards. At the awards dinner held last night in Canberra, HS&P was one of three contenders for the 'Outstanding Achievements to Promote Health and Wellbeing in Settings'. The winner of the category went to OzHelp Foundation for their 'Tradies Tune Up' program. Tradies Tune-up also received the overall award for best health promotion of all four categories presented on the evening.

All of the HS&P partners - the Planning Institute of Australia, National Heart Foundation and ALGA were represented at the awards dinner, and were pleased with the level of interest that HS&P received by the health promotion sector.

Funding boost for regional arts

Arts Minister Simon Crean has announced the allocation of $900,000 to fund 65 arts projects in communities across regional Australia. The 65 successful projects have received funding through the Australian Government's Regional Arts Fund which allocates funding twice a year. The funding will be delivered through the peak regional arts organisation in each state. To view a list of funded projects click here.

Women scarce in list of highest paid CEOs

The annual list of Australia's top paid CEOs and senior executives once again highlights the paucity of women in highly paid leadership roles. In the Australian Financial Review's 12th annual survey of executive salaries in 2010, just five of the top 250 of Australia's highest paid CEOs and executive chairmen are women. Only two women, Gail Kelly at Westpac, and Chua Kong at Singtel, make salaries of more than $3 million per year. Sue Morphett at Pacific Brands, Nicole Hollows at Macarthur Coal and Katie Page of Harvey Norman are the only other women on the list of top paid CEOs. Claire Braund, Executive Director of Women on Boards, said the survey brought into stark relief the gender inequalities in the Australian workplace around payment and promotion. "The fact that just two percent of our highest paid CEOs are women is frightening when you think about what this means in terms of the trickle-down effects."

Calls for Government to release draft Digital Strategy

Sue Hutley, Executive Director of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), has called on the Australian Government to release their draft Australian Digital Strategy as soon as possible.

Studies have shown Australia's libraries are increasingly called upon to supply internet access and training. "Australia's 1500 public libraries are already community hubs for those who just can't afford broadband or don't have any computer access at all", Ms Hutley said.

"What we don't want to see is our community accepting broadband access to the home without any understanding of what they will require to use the internet and broadband. Where are the actions and plans to ensure equal access for all Australians to broadband and Australian content?"

During her presentation, Ms Hutley cited the Digital Britain and Digital Ambition for Scotland as two recent examples of national strategies from which Australians can learn. Ms Hutley said there is significant concern about the capture and management of quality Australian content. Currently the National Library of Australia is the only institution storing and making available an Australian website archive, through the Pandora project. ALIA is also concerned that funding should be made available immediately for libraries and other cultural institutions to manage the digital deluge. Meanwhile the Senate has passed a motion this week to gag Communications Minister Stephen Conroy until the government releases the business plan for the national broadband network. The Opposition will introduce legislation into the Senate next week to require the Productivity Commission to undertake a cost-benefit study.

Anti-smoking legislation before Parliament

The Government has introduced the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Amendment Bill 2010 into Parliament.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the Government was committed to reaching the performance benchmarks set under the COAG National Healthcare Agreement of reducing the national smoking rate to 10 percent of the population by 2018 and halving the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander smoking rate.

This Bill is the next step in the Government's anti-smoking action which includes the 25 per cent excise increase announced in April 2010, record investment in anti-smoking social marketing campaigns, and legislation to mandate plain packaging of tobacco products.

Messages and images promoting the use of tobacco products can "normalise" tobacco use, increase uptake of smoking by youth and act as disincentives to quit. Since 1992, most forms of tobacco advertising have been banned under the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act 1992 (the TAP Act). The object of the TAP Act is to improve public health by limiting the broadcasting and publication of messages and images promoting the use of tobacco products.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has called on all parties to support these measures in the Parliament. "The Government's commitment to these anti-smoking initiatives will save lives and improve the health of many Australians," AMA President Dr Andrew Pesce said.

Road freight report

A national scheme encouraging innovative and higher productivity vehicles has the potential to reduce public concerns regarding freight vehicles on the road according to a research released commissioned by the National Transport Commission (NTC).

The NTC commissioned the report, entitled Understanding public perceptions of road freight, to explore perceptions of heavy vehicles among the Australian public. The report also gauged reactions to the Performance Based Standards (PBS) scheme - a key Council of Australian Government's reform that allows the heavy vehicle industry to achieve higher productivity and safety through innovative truck and bus design. The research was undertaken by an independent market research agency, and involved interviews with 1500 motorists from urban and regional Australia. The report is available here.

Democracy Singleton-style

Singleton Mayor, Sue Moore, has thanked voters for giving the Council a clear indication on how they want to be governed from the next local government election.

A Constitutional Referendum has approved having a popularly elected Mayor, reducing councillor numbers and scrapping the existing system of three wards.

More than 11,000 people, or just over 77 per cent of people enrolled to vote, took part in the referendum which asked the three questions on future governance. A popularly elected Mayor was approved by 59.6 per cent of voters. Reducing the number of councillors from 12-to-nine received 61 per cent support. Sixty per cent agreed to abolish the wards within the Singleton Local Government Area.

Overdue library book has happy ending

Raymond McLaren borrowed the craft book Knots, Splices and Fancy Work from Newcastle Library in August 1957 and it is now more than 19,350 days overdue. McLaren, however, was more than happy to pay the $5000 fine as a donation last week because the book was his first step in building a multimillion-dollar business manufacturing steel cables and rigging gear. The book describes basic knots used by sailors and wire rope splicing. (Source: AAP)

Newcastle targets polluters

Newcastle Council will target 20 companies across the city that it has identified as the region's biggest greenhouse polluters.

Environment and Climate Change Services Manager Peter Dormand says a council report has revealed around 20 local industries emit 30 per cent of greenhouse emissions or are major water consumers.

Mr Dormand says a person will soon be employed by council to work with industries such as those on Kooragang Island, to help them reduce their carbon footprint.

"What we plan to do is bring those top 20, separate them off from the remaining 11,000 other businesses that we have in Newcastle with a view of working together," he said.

Canberra airport upgrade

'ALGA News' inspected Canberra airport's Southern Concourse Terminal Extension the other day and was impressed. Delegates to our National General Assembly next June will be too. The new 26,000sqm terminal has new check in and baggage collection halls, new aerobridges, new food and beverage and retail outlets plus a massive new Qantas Club Lounge that will be the second biggest in the country.

The existing terminal building will be demolished in stages to make room for the new bigger and better facility. The project will be built in two stages; the first, now complete is the Southern Concourse Terminal Extension and the second stage known as the Western Concourse Terminal Extension is due for completion in 2012. We are told that when complete, Canberra will have a state-of-the-art airport that will rival any terminal of its size around the world.

New approach needed for city traffic

Australia is dealing with inner-city traffic congestion in reverse gear, an engineering researcher says.

Australian governments are charging motorists to bypass congested CBDs on toll roads while traffic pours into city hearts for free, Queensland University of Technology engineering student Jake Whitehead says. He says the model should be turned on its head. Motorists should get free use of bypass toll roads and should pay to drive in the inner city.

Mr Whitehead spent last year at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, investigating road-tolling schemes in Europe. He found it was now standard practice to use schemes such as congestion taxes in order to discourage road use. "Quite a few of the European government officials I met think Australia has taken the wrong approach to road pricing," Mr Whitehead said.

"Our logic is wrong because we charge people to travel on the new roads or bypasses that we want them to use, while drivers travel for free on congested inner-city routes. Instead, we should be looking at charging on these congested routes and using that revenue to fund or subsidise public transport and roads."

Queensland's peak motoring body, the RACQ, said Mr Whitehead's study was "a great contribution to the debate on vital road funding and state and local governments should seriously consider his proposals. (Source: AAP)

OECD report on economy

A wide-ranging assessment by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of the Australian economy was released this week. The Report - Economic Survey of Australia - acknowledges that the Australian economy has been one of the most resilient in the OECD during the GFC, but we must be vigilant to future policies initiatives.

Whilst the report acknowledges that the country's future growth prospects remain bright "with potential growth among the strongest in the OECD", it also flags a number of concerns regarding current Government policies, including its capability of keeping to its strict spending discipline to return the budget back to surplus, the make-up of its planned mining tax and the cost effectiveness of its National Broadband Network (NBN).

The Report reinforces the importance of responding to the nations' infrastructure needs. It says that adequate and well-functioning infrastructure is key for growth and well-being, particularly in Australia because of its size, the geographical dispersion of its population and production centres, and its remoteness from other markets. Nevertheless, Australia has an important infrastructure deficit. This deficit, which is in part due to past underinvestment, is exacerbated by the strong demand generated by the mining boom, population growth, technological progress and environmental concerns. Easing these shortages requires better regulation to promote a more efficient use of existing facilities and well targeted public and private investment decisions.

The report also argues that raising labour supply would ease bottlenecks and help tackle social inclusion, an important aspect of wellbeing in Australia. Reforms in tax-transfer, education policies and labour market institutions would be key in this regard, but should be subject to fiscal constraints. Given the multiple and inter-related characteristics of social exclusion - homelessness, health/disability problems, insufficient education and training, poor social networks - a comprehensive approach to service delivery is needed. The full report can be downloaded here.

Reconciliation Action Plans

The 200th Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) will be launched next week. The launch of the Blacktown City Council RAP on 26 November is a significant milestone in the life of the RAP program which began just four years ago when eight organisations pledged to contribute to reconciliation through clear actions within their normal business activities. A RAP workshop will be held in Hobart on December 9. Details here.

Garnaut Climate Change Review update

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, has invited Professor Ross Garnaut to update significant elements of his 2008 Garnaut Climate Change Review and to report by 31 May 2011.

The Review Update will consider:

• international developments on climate change mitigation efforts;
• developments in climate change science, and understanding of climate change impacts;
• previous proposals to develop a carbon price in Australia, and the ensuing public debate;
• domestic and international emissions trends;
• changes in low emissions technology costs and availability;
• the potential for abatement within the land sector; and
• developments in the Australian electricity market.

Throughout the Review Update, consultation with key stakeholders will be held to understand views and inform analysis. A series of publicly released papers will be prepared between November 2010 and March.