 | |  The Australian Local Government Association’s National Local Roads and Transport Congress will return to Tasmania this year at what is a vital time for the planning and delivery of land transport in Australia, especially by councils. ALGA has identified and agreed on a range of challenges and objectives in the National Local Roads and Transport Policy Agenda 2010-20 and the program for this year’s Congress will reflect that Agenda. This year’s Congress provides councils with the opportunity to support ALGA in delivering its Local Roads and Transport Policy Agenda influencing the next phase of the Nation Building Program and, importantly, the policy agendas of each of the political parties in the lead up to next year’s election. One of the highlights of this year’s Congress will be the release of the first edition of the State of the Local Road Assets Report. This Report has been commissioned by ALGA and builds on the critical work undertaken in 2010 which looked at the gap in funding for local roads. The State of the Assets Report will provide the technical basis for our campaign for increased government funding for local roads into the future. ALGA has invited key federal politicians dealing with local roads and transport and the Congress will involve a range of sessions focused on linking people, particularly in regional Australia, with speakers drawn from government and industry. One of our key note speakers has international expertise in the area of asset management, particularly related to local roads and bridges. The Congress will be held at the Wrest Point Conference Centre, Hobart from 14-16 November 2012. Early bird registration is available until 14 September 2012, so don't miss out on the great conference discount! To find out more about the 2012 National Local Roads and Transport Congress and to register, visit the conference website by clicking here. | | | | |  In a submission to political parties and independent candidates ahead of the Northern Territory election on 25 August, the Local Government Association of the Northern Territory (LGANT) has called on potential members of the legislative assembly to support a series of position statements as part of their election platforms. In general terms, Northern Territory councils are seeking commitments from a future Territory government to grow and support local government both generally and constitutionally; improve local government finances; and form partnerships to enhance working relationships. The Submission to Political Parties and Independent Candidates was presented to Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson; Leader of the Opposition Country Liberal Party Terry Mills and Independent Gerry Wood, in early July. It requests support for local government in the Northern Territory by advocating the inclusion of provisions in a future Territory constitution. It also calls upon political parties and independent candidates to commit to supporting the financial recognition of local government in the Australian Constitution: “Australia’s forefathers regrettably failed to make any mention of local government when they drafted Australia’s constitution despite local government being a sphere of government in Australia and in existence before the States themselves became separately constituted. As one of the spheres of government in Australia, local government is at least worthy of having that recognition as a partner in the federal system of government in Australia.” LGANT highlights the need for a fair share of the federal taxation revenue if “local government in the Northern Territory is to prosper in the future”, with the document requesting that political parties and independent candidates “commit to the principle of local government receiving a fair share of total federal taxation revenue”. Other requests include support for “growth (at least to the level of the local government index) in the Northern Territory Operational Subsidy which is paid to shire councils” and support for “the repeal of provisions in the Local Government Act to do with conditionally rateable land”. The Northern Territory Legislative Assembly dissolved for the election on Monday, 6 August and rolls closed on Wednesday, 8 August. | | | | |  ALGA Board member Cr Bill McArthur represented local government at the second meeting of the Select Council on Immigration and Settlement (SCIS) in Canberra this week. The meeting was hosted by the Commonwealth and chaired by the Federal Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen. It was attended by ministerial representatives and their delegates from state and territory governments. The SCIS members agreed to seek Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) endorsement of a change to the SCIS Terms of Reference. This change would allow the SCIS to consider any gaps in support for, or issues relating to, permanent and temporary migrants and consider options for addressing them. The chair has also written to the chair of the Select Council on Housing and Homelessness and the chair of the Standing Council on Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment, highlighting SCIS members’ concerns about the availability of affordable student accommodation for international students. In addition, the SCIS has agreed: - to incorporate further comments by members into the draft of the National Settlement Framework to be used as the basis for further stakeholder consultation
- to seek and consider suggestions from states and territories in the preparation of its annual research, evaluation and economic analysis program, and that this be accompanied by an annual stocktake of work that has been done over the preceding year and the key messages arising
- that the Department of Immigration and Citizenship will provide all jurisdictions with a coherent data set of statistics on a quarterly basis that will enable them to plan for and monitor the settlement of people migrating to Australia and, where available, relocating within Australia
- that the SCIS noted the National Action Plan to build on social cohesion, harmony and security, the final evaluation and its recommendations.
The SCIS also noted that the council is due to expire in December 2012 and that consideration will be given to the best mechanism for ongoing engagement between the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments and Local Government. | | |
| |  This week, communities across the country recognised National Homeless Person’s Week, holding special events to raise awareness about approximately 100,000 Australians without a place to live. The national initiative serves as a stark reminder that people of all backgrounds and ages may find themselves homeless at some stage in their life, despite Australia's affluence and economic prosperity. Local governments are acutely aware of the challenges involved in providing affordable housing to the communities they serve. Some councils provide accommodation through partnerships with housing associations or through direct intervention in the market. Others provide relief to those seeking temporary shelter through their role as owners and managers of caravan parks. At a recent local government and homelessness workshop in Canberra, managed by the Centre for Urban and Housing Research, ALGA emphasised that solving the problem of homelessness is a complex issue. It can't just be addressed by speeding up approvals and land subdivisions. Local government is in the business of building sustainable communities. Many of the underlying causes of homelessness are societal but achieving sustainable communities relies on services which fall within the responsibility of state, territory and Commonwealth governments. As previously argued by the Chief Executive of Homelessness Australia, there are many reasons why people experience homelessness, including domestic violence; family breakdowns; a lack of affordable housing; alcohol and drug dependency; poverty and social inequality. Homelessness is a complex area but by addressing these issues and providing more affordable housing, we can go some way to fixing the problems related to homelessness. While local government acknowledges that the Commonwealth has shown great commitment to tackling homelessness, it is clear that ongoing resources are needed to achieve a sustainable reduction in the number of homeless and address the reasons that lead to homelessness. The federal government can continue to make inroads in addressing homelessness by re-investing in the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS), which is an agreement with the states and territories to invest in affordable housing and by engaging local governments in a dialogue in what additional resources they may require to make a real difference in communities. Mayor Genia McCaffery
ALGA President | | |
| | In an historic decision by NSW councils, members of the Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW (LGSA) have overwhelmingly voted ‘YES’ to form a single, united Association to represent the views and policies of Local Government in NSW. The Shires Association of NSW has voted 59-13 in favour, with the Local Government Association of NSW voting 16-53 in favour of forming a single Association. President of the Shires Association of NSW, Cr Ray Donald, is delighted with the result. “Today’s result signals that the time has come for NSW councils to be represented by one united Association with one strong cohesive voice for councils across the state,” Cr Donald said. "It's long been acknowledged that we need one voice representing Local Government in NSW, to effectively lobby the state and federal government on Local Government issues.” President of the Local Government Association of NSW, Cr Keith Rhoades AFSM, is also extremely pleased, saying merging the Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW to create a single peak body will further increase the credibility of Local Government in NSW. “The structure of the new NSW Association will be broken up into regions - a metropolitan/urban region and a rural/regional region. This will ensure the new Association fairly represents the interests of all councils across NSW irrespective of their geographical location,” Cr Rhoades said. The LGSA will now work with Fair Work Australia and the NSW Industrial Registry to complete all administrative steps and set a date for amalgamation, which will most likely occur in early 2013. Following the amalgamation date, an Interim Board will take over from the current Shires Association and LGA Executive Boards until all members gather together for their first conference as One Association. It is at this first Conference that members will vote on who should be appointed to the new Association Executive Board and as the first President. The ballot to decide whether the Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW should merge was run independently by the Australian Electoral Commission from 12 July to 7 August 2012. | | | | | A Commission for Rural Australia could be established to better represent the interests of regional Australians, a conference on the future of rural and regional Australia has heard. Dr Anthony Hogan, head of the Australian National University's National Institute for Rural and Regional Australia presented a paper he co-wrote to the institute's conference in Narrabri. The paper outlined how such a commission could be created to ensure the socio-economic well-being of rural Australia by making government partner with local communities. "The commission could be responsible for developing a national strategy for rural and regional Australia, including the identification of priority areas, outcome targets, minimal level of service delivery requirements and service delivery mechanisms," Dr Hogan wrote. "It would need to address challenges between spreading resources too thinly to be effective, over whether specific areas need to be progressed ahead of others." The paper was one of several presented on the future of rural and regional Australia during the two-day conference, which concluded on Thursday , discussing the challenges of making sure rural Australians' voices were heard by policy-makers. | | | | | A number of prominent Australian researchers have accepted invitations to become Fellows of the Regional Australia Institute (RAI). These include Professor Andrew Beer, Professor A. J. Brown, Professor Chris Cocklin, Professor Graeme Hugo, Professor John Martin, Professor Fiona Haslam McKenzie, Professor John Tomaney, and Adjunct Professor Tony Sorensen, all of whom will be well known to members of the Australia New Zealand Regional Science Association International (ANZRSAI). A Research Advisory Committee has been established consisting of Professor Sandra Harding (Chair), Professor Ngiare Brown, Professor Andrew Beer, Professor Graeme Hugo, and Professor John Tomaney. The committee will assist in the development of research aligned with the vision and framework set by the RAI. A research agenda has been published and contains imperatives of: - bringing forward community perspectives, each piece of major research will be required to devote some of its resources to an investigation of relevant community perspectives;
- developing practical solutions, going beyond the identification and analysis of problems and focusing on realistic pathways for change, and
- building on existing work by related institutions domestically and internationally.
The research themes are: - providing accessible and robust benchmark information on position and potential;
- realising the most important opportunities in regions with significant unrealised potential, such as coal seam gas, broadband and fly-in fly-out mining;
- documenting consequences and perceptions of change, such as mining investment, downsizing of steel and aluminium, water buy-backs and the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, and urban to regional migration, and solutions providing successful transitions; and
- better government service delivery models and technologies and more effective engagement.
| | | | | The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) produces a Road Construction and Maintenance Price Index annually. The index estimates changes in the price of road construction and maintenance by monitoring the price of a variety of inputs: materials such as asphalt and concrete, equipment hire and operating costs, and labour. The index is used to inform decisions about road pricing and road infrastructure funding at all levels of government. As part of the 2012 update, BITRE is undertaking a survey of organisations which conduct road construction and maintenance, including local government authorities. The information collected will be used to recalibrate weights which determine how changes in the prices of each input affect the index. This is necessary to maintain the accuracy of the index over time as technology and engineering practices change. The survey will be conducted by email during August. The Road Construction and Maintenance Price Index is available on the BITRE website in the Public Road-Related Expenditure and Revenue series and in BITRE Road Construction and Maintenance Price Index-2011 update. | | | | | A legal report on coal-seam gas activity shows local councils may have more rights than was first thought. The advice was commissioned by the seven member councils of the Northern Rivers Regional Organisation of Councils (NOROC). It was received more than two months ago, but only made public this week. The Lismore Mayor, Jenny Dowell, says it shows coal-seam gas companies may be denied permission to use council- owned roads. "And the grounds for that refusal... is the definition of improvement," she said. "It could be argued that the road-side reserves and the public roads are an improvement of the land and therefore council has the right to refuse access and drilling and other work on that improvement." | | | | | The following article has been provided by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association: A new industry code for the deployment of mobile phone base stations came into effect on 1 July, 2012. The new code - 564:2011 Industry Code for Mobile Base Station Deployment - has been published by the Communications Alliance (CA) and is registered as a mandatory code by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). The new regulations are the result of a scheduled five year review of Australia’s network deployment legislation by a Communications Alliance working committee made up of key stakeholders including prominent consumer, community, industry and government representatives. The Code provides essential mandated processes for mobile network operators to follow to give the community and other stakeholders the opportunity to be fully informed about facilities that are deemed “low impact” under the Telecommunications Act. In recent years, approximately 60-70 per cent of new or upgraded facilities were “low impact” with the remaining 30-40 per cent requiring Council Development Applications (DA). The revision process has resulted in many improvements to the Code including requiring carriers to develop and evolve consultation plans which are specific to any new proposals for mobile phone base stations. The consultation plans must be submitted to local councils, and will be available online, improving transparency and visibility of the consultation process with local councils and communities. The timeframes for local councils and communities to comment on proposals for new infrastructure have been extended, and consultations will now incorporate new and revised methods of communicating with local councils and the community (e.g. websites, letters, signage). Residents who may be concerned about a proposed network antenna in their neighbourhood will now be able to log on to the updated Radio Frequency National Site Archive (www.rfnsa.com.au) website and access information about a proposal under the new ‘consultation’ tab. This database also provides all the regulatory site safety information. The new consultation page provides information about the proposed deployment, including technical details, location and proposed consultation activities such as community information session details and contact details. The Industry Code and the RFNSA website together are best practice processes for mobile operators to demonstrate that all relevant stakeholders are informed and consulted about mobile phone network deployment and that compliance with relevant exposure limits and protection of the public is met. | | | | | The Gold Coast City Council has moved to speed-up the approval process for housing projects in the city, starting with a $1 billion residential development. Mayor Tom Tate says Maddison Estate will give the local construction industry a much-needed shot in the arm. The 118-hectare development at Pimpama will cater for about 3,500 residents. In an effort to fast-track the housing project, Councillor Tate will today announce a memorandum of understanding has been signed between council and the company acting on behalf of investors, LM Investment Management Limited. "I'm making sure that we'll be closely working with developers and making sure the whole thing is streamlined," Cr Tate said. He says it is the first agreement of its kind. The project is expected to take seven years to complete and he says cutting red tape will ensure that deadline is met. | | | | | Western Australian authorities will replace the current state-wide emergency warning system with a national model. The Emergency Alert phone messaging system will be used in the case of emergencies such as bushfires later this year, rather than StateAlert. Emergency Services Minister Troy Buswell today announced that StateAlert, which was created in 2005, would be replaced in time for the 2012-13 bushfire season. "The decision to adopt the national Emergency Alert system follows a functional and cost review of the StateAlert system by the State Emergency Management Committee," he said. "The bottom line is there are significant benefits to move across to the national system." Mr Buswell said the national Emergency Alert system would deliver improvements in the capacity, flexibility and technology of distributing messages. "Under the Emergency Alert system there is the capacity to deliver more messages. It can prioritise messages closer to the emergency threat, making it easier for operational staff to operate the system," he said. "Emergency Alert will also have location-based technology available, starting from later this year, which will allow people travelling through an area under threat to receive messages." | | | | | Australian residents made a record eight million short-term trips overseas in 2011-12, according to the latest figures released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This is up from 7.4 million trips in 2010-2011, and more than double the numbers from ten years ago.
The most popular destination for Australian residents going overseas on short-term trips (under a year) was New Zealand, with over 1.1 million trips across the Tasman occurring in the last financial year.
The next most popular destinations were Indonesia (911,000 movements), the USA (819,000), Thailand (600,000) and the UK (487,000) . These top five destinations alone, accounted for just under half of all short-term resident departures for the year.
The most frequently cited reason for journey was for a holiday, making up over half (57 per cent) of all short-term resident departures. Other common reasons were visiting friends and relatives (23 per cent) and business (10 per cent). | | | | | Banksia is once again looking to inspire and be inspired by examples of environmental excellence in Australia’s most prestigious environmental awards and urge local governments leading the way in environmental sustainability to enter the awards. Local government is a key sector in forwarding Australia’s development towards a sustainable future and each and every council is encouraged to enter one of the many categories featured in the 2012 Awards Program such as the Education Award, Water Award, Large Organisation Award and many more. The Awards seek out and recognise Australian businesses, community groups, individuals and public bodies such as local governments that are reducing their environmental footprint and using resources in innovative ways. The Awards provide an invaluable opportunity for recognition, and promotion of the leadership that Local Government is providing. Entries close 24 August, with finalists to be announced on 26 September 2012. Winners will be presented at the Banksia Foundation Awards Night at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. For further information or to download an entry kit visit: www.banksiafdn.com See what our past winner Earthwatch has to say about the value of winning a Banksia!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdAmtIPg0Ig&feature=g-upl | | |
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