 | |  President of the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA), Mayor Genia McCaffery has welcomed today's announcement by Local Government Minister Simon Crean of a Commonwealth review of Financial Assistance Grants (FAGs) for local government, noting that ALGA had long called for a review of the grants. Minister Crean said that the review would be undertaken by the Commonwealth Grants Commission and noted that the review was aimed at identifying tangible measures for improving the impact of FAGs on the effectiveness of local governments and their ability to provide an equitable level of service to their communities. In responding to the review, Mayor McCaffery has stressed the need for a broad review of the grants, given their importance to councils and local communities. "This review of FAGs was foreshadowed by the Government in the 2011-12 Budget to look at the equity and efficiency of funding provided by the Australian Government for councils through the FAGs program but the draft terms of reference also released today, need to address the issue of whether current funding is sufficient," Mayor McCaffery said. FAGs are intended to improve local government's capacity to provide communities with an equitable level of services and to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of local government. The Local Government (Financial Assistance) Act 1995 embodies the principle that the Commonwealth should distribute a proportion of revenue to local government to support the building of resilient and prosperous communities. "ALGA has long argued that the amount of funding provided by the Federal Government to councils is not adequate. While we welcome the Government's decision to undertake a review of this funding, we believe it should include an assessment of the adequacy of the amount of grants and whether the current approach to indexation is effective, given the annual cost increases faced by councils do not reflect CPI." "According to a 2008 report by the Productivity Commission, local government is very effective in raising revenue from its own sources with councils raising on average around 90 per cent of possible revenue from their own sources. Councils can do little more in this area and the FAGs are very important to allow councils to meet their communities' needs," Mayor McCaffery said. "The inquiry is a two-stage process and while the initial stage is looking at policy and administration of the program we are calling on the Government to make sure the key issues of indexation and the total amount of the grants are addressed in the second stage which is due for completion by December 2013.” "This review is vital because the whole question of adequate and certain federal funding for local services is of great concern to councils and communities alike. It must be remembered that the key reason local government is working so hard to gain full recognition in the Australian Constitution is to ensure that federal funding of local government is secure and effective." To access the draft terms of reference, click here. | | | | |  The Local Government Association of the Northern Territory (LGANT) has said that it is looking forward to working with the new Northern Territory Government led by Chief Minister, Terry Mills. The incoming CLP is likely to secure at least 15 seats in the 25-seat chamber after a heavy swing against Labor and has already raised plans for re-examining the effectiveness of spending in remote areas. As well as promising changes to the correctional system and alcohol policy, the CLP has promised to hand decision-making back to remote communities, which could see the dismantling of amalgamated shires. LGANT President and Mayor of Alice Springs, Damien Ryan says he looks forward to working with Chief Minister Mills, who has pledged to work with regional and remote centres across the Northern Territory. "This is a great step for local government and we welcome the CLP's commitment to bring about changes to centres like Alice Springs," Mr Ryan said. "The Country Liberals have said that they will work to strengthen the town's tourism base through the re-establishment of a Tourism Centre and increase the use of prisoner gangs to remove graffiti." In a submission to political parties and independent candidates ahead of the Northern Territory election on 25 August, LGANT called on potential members of the legislative assembly to support a series of position statements as part of their election platforms. The Submission to Political Parties and Independent Candidates outlined that Northern Territory councils were seeking commitments to grow and support local governments both generally and constitutionally; improve local government finances; and form partnerships to enhance working relationships. "In our election document, we have highlighted the need for a fair share of the federal taxation revenue if local government in the Northern Territory is to be financially sustainable," Mr Ryan said. The election document also argues for local government structural reform, with LGANT’s policies and strategic plan supporting the full incorporation of the Northern Territory into local government areas as is the case in most other states in Australia. Currently local government areas cover about 90 per cent of the land mass of the Northern Territory. The CLP's post-election plan outlines commitments to establish regional councils where there is support from a majority of residents within a region and business modelling that supports its future sustainability. LGANT is looking forward to starting discussions with the new Local Government Minister, who is yet to be announced. "It would be a wonderful opportunity for the LGANT Executive to sit down and talk with the new Local Government Minister during its Annual General Meeting in November," Mr Ryan said. | | | | |  Packaging was a priority at last Friday's third meeting of the Standing Council on Environment and Water, which was attended by environment ministers and ALGA Vice President, Troy Pickard. Ministers agreed to push ahead with work to find better ways to manage Australia's packaging waste, noting the hundreds of submissions from industry, environment groups, the community and local governments on the Consultation Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) released last December, which showed strong support for further action to address the environmental impacts of packaging waste and litter. Ministers agreed to develop a Decision RIS to undertake a more detailed analysis, including regional and other distributional impacts. In response to consultation feedback, ministers agreed that in addition to the options considered in the Consultation RIS, including the options put forward by Boomerang Alliance and industry, three further options be included in the Decision RIS: - an industry co-regulatory stewardship scheme focussing on beverage containers only;
- an approach similar to the Australian Packaging Covenant, with substantial increase in industry funding for initiatives; and
- a container deposit model based on the South Australian system.
Ministers asked senior officials to consult with key stakeholders on the design elements of the additional options before they are modelled in the Decision RIS. The South Australian Minister acknowledged the importance of recognising other social and environmental factors that are more difficult to assess in economic terms. Queensland noted that it does not oppose the progression of further national work or the development of a Decision RIS but will not be participating in or funding further work in this area as it has elected to work directly with the packaging industry. | | |
| |  Transport, and in particular road transport, is vitally important for local communities, which is why I was happy to support the Transport Reform Network (TRN) in Sydney this week as it launched a campaign to ease urban congestion and address transport infrastructure backlogs. The TRN wants to galvanise community support for a national reform process that involves all levels of government in reviewing and improving the way we plan, manage and pay for our transport. During my address at the launch on Wednesday, I reinforced that road transport contributes $20 billion to the national economy each year and employs more than 500,000 Australians. Statistics such as these underline the importance of making sure that road transport operates as efficiently as possible. They also point to the size of the benefits which can be realised through reform. Local government is responsible for managing more than 80 per cent of the total road length in Australia, and access to key logistics infrastructure and production centres is often via local roads. Transport is also a major area of local government expenditure, accounting for up to 20 per cent of total expenditure by councils. Spending on roads by local government exceeded $4.2 billion in 2008-09. While ALGA applauds the Australian Government's commitment to funding the Roads to Recovery Program through to 2019, expenditure projections for maintenance and renewal for the next 15 years show that current levels of expenditure will need to increase by around $1.2 billion per year to avoid deterioration of the local road network. This funding gap relates solely to the current network and does not allow for any future growth and upgrading of road networks. ALGA has commissioned further work in this area to provide a clearer picture about the state of local roads assets in terms of their condition, functionality and utilisation. This new report will assist us in our continued advocacy for government funding for local roads into the future. It will be launched at the 2012 National Local Roads and Transport Congress in Hobart in November. This work will also be critical in terms of our understanding of the implications of two important road transport reforms for local government: the introduction of a single National Heavy Vehicle Regulator from January 2013 and the ongoing work associated with the Heavy Vehicle Charging and Investment project that is proceeding under the auspices of the Council of the Australian Governments (COAG) road reform agenda. Our engagement in these two areas serves to illustrate the need for all levels of government to work together to achieve the best transport outcomes for Australia. The benefits of reform have to be realised by all governments and by all levels of industry if we are to deliver the best outcomes for the community. I hope our work helps to achieve that goal. Mayor Genia McCaffery
ALGA President | | |
| | The Australian National University held a two-day conference this week on 'The Cultural History of Climate Change'. This conference, attended by ALGA, brought together a wide range of people with a program that was almost as diverse as the audience. Climate change remains a complex and charged issue for communities around the country. The policy and program prescriptions have largely revolved around a concept known as the 'triple bottom line'. This basically means that the issue needs to be addressed in a way that provides strong positive outcomes at the economic, environmental and social levels. But there has been one other level that has been either missing or approached with a limited scope, cultural impacts. The purpose of this week's conference was to provide greater cross-pollination of knowledge about climate change and the effects on society at all levels, including culturally. One issue is the direct threat to vulnerable cultures, especially those on low-lying South Pacific Islands. Sea levels are already rising to the point where high-tides cause village inundation on a daily basis. These cultures, which are unique and valuable face being dispersed across the region as the projected sea-level rises force more people away from their ancestral land. In Australia, the risk, while less immediately dire, is also present. Regional and rural Australia faces some of the greatest risk from climate change. Rainfall patterns in the Murray-Darling Basin have dramatically changed over the last few decades, leading to less crops being viable and more unpredictable and extreme weather patterns. This has tremendous effects for communities. The risk to communities and their own cultural history is something that needs to be considered in the greater scope of what climate change is, what is means, and how communities and governments of all levels put in place policies and programs to address it. ALGA's view on the need to maintain and support local and traditional cultures is clear, as is the commitment to address climate change issues from both the position of mitigation and adaptation. Discussing the role of culture in developing truly representative policy is absolutely necessary. ALGA is looking forward to future discussions and showing how deeply local government cares about this issue and furthering the national agenda | | | | | Councils that own or manage landfills and want to participate in the Australian Government's Carbon Farming Initiative should be aware that the landfill determination has now been registered on the Federal Register of Instruments, available here. The determination gives effect to the methodology for the capture and combustion of methane from landfill legacy waste in accordance with section 106 of the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative Act) 2011. The guidelines for calculating regulatory baselines are available on the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency website. These provide for a 30 per cent baseline where there are qualitative requirements to control landfill gas. A calculator is available to assist landfill operators to quickly and simply convert any quantitative methane restrictions into a required rate of gas capture. Alternatively, landfill operators can ask the relevant state or territory environmental regulator to determine this rate. The determination covers projects that involve the installation of gas capture equipment since 1 July 2010 and landfill projects transitioning from Greenhouse Friendly and GGAS. The department is preparing a variation to the determination to provide opportunities for existing gas capture systems that are not transitioning from Greenhouse Friendly or GGAS. For more information, please contact cfi@climatechange.gov.au | | | | | On Tuesday, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, announced that instead of moving to a domestic emission's trading scheme (ETS) in 2015, Australia would create a link to the European Union carbon market. The EU ETS has been in place since 2005 and covers all 27 EU countries as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Under the new mechanism, the plan for a floor price of $15 per tonne in a floating market will be removed and the Australian/EU ETS will not have a floor. The immediate impacts on local government and the Budget impact going forward from this development are far from clear. The originally planned ETS would have been far less vulnerable to dramatic changes. The EU ETS has seen prices as high as $53 per tonne to now, where it's presently just under $10 per tonne. Having 31 different countries impacting on the price, as well being exposed to the current financial situation in Europe, means the risks posed are greater than they would have been. Equally, however, the positive benefits could be much greater, both in terms of economic benefits and those drawn from increased collaboration. | | | | | The Australian Government this week launched an $8million, multi-year partnership between the Telstra Foundation and The Alannah and Madeline Foundation to develop and deliver eSmart Libraries across Australia - one of the most significant community cybersafety programs ever undertaken in Australia. Over the next six years, the Foundations will work with Australia’s 1,500 public libraries to roll out eSmart Libraries - a world-leading cybersafety system to better equip and connect local communities with the skills they need for smart, safe and responsible use of technology. Telstra Foundation Chairman, Geoff Booth, said the partnership between the Telstra Foundation and The Alannah and Madeline Foundation takes the successful eSmart system beyond the schoolyard and into the broader community. “Libraries are vital community hubs and play a key role in bridging the digital divide,” Mr Booth said. “The Telstra Foundation recognises the online digital world is changing the way we work, socialise, communicate, transact and organise our lives and this fast-changing environment presents new risks.” “This partnership, through eSmart Libraries, will give more Australians the opportunity to experience the social and economic benefits of new communications technologies whilst making the online library experience more inclusive and safer for everyone,” Mr Booth said. The Alannah and Madeline Foundation’s CEO, Dr Judith Slocombe, said the Foundation is committed to working with the Telstra Foundation and libraries to help the community, irrespective of income, ability or disadvantage, to increase their skills to become more empowered cyber-citizens. “Many sectors of the community rely on their community library to use technology as they don’t have access to it in their own homes,” Dr Slocombe said. The Telstra Foundation and The Alannah and Madeline Foundation will pilot eSmart Libraries in 20 clusters of libraries in early 2013 and afterwards, roll it out Australia-wide. More than 54 per cent of Australians are members of libraries, which are regarded as central places for community members to learn and ask questions, making them the location for this initiative. | | | | | The Senate has referred to the Education, Employment and the Workplace Relations Legislation Committee an inquiry into the Protecting Local Jobs (Regulating Enterprise Migration Agreements) Bill 2012 and additional proposed amendments. The bill proposes to amend the Fair Work Act 2009 and the Migration Act 1958 to provide for restrictions on the use of Enterprise Migration Agreements (EMA) and for the imposition of conditions when they are used. The bill would provide for: - A requirement for employers to advertise jobs in the local labour market before obtaining an EMA;
- a local jobs board to list available jobs in the resources sector;
- a requirement for employers who use EMAs to train and prioritise employment for locals, recently retrenched workers and other groups with high unemployment rates;
- the placement of conditions on an EMA participant employer by the Minister to contribute to training for Australian residents other than those employed under the EMA; and
- the tabling of an EMA in Parliament as soon as practicable after it is made.
The committee will also consider amendments to the bill that propose to broaden the scope of the bill to regulate all types of work agreements. Councils are invited to make a submission, which must be received by the secretariat no later than 5.00pm on Thursday, 13 September 2012. The committee is due to table its report on 29 October 2012. Further information on the inquiry can be obtained from the committee secretary on 02 6277 3521 and from the committee's website. | | | | | The draft of AS 5488 Subsurface Utility Information has been released for Public Comment by SAI Global. The comment period closes on the 22nd of October 2012. | Draft Number: | DR AS 5488 | | Title: | Subsurface Utility Engineering | | Project Committee: | IT-036 Subsurface Utility Engineering Information | | Public Comment Closing Date: | 2012-10-22 | All non-committee members can access the draft from the SAI Global website. Members of the public will also need to register on the Standards Australia HUB in order to make comment. A PDF step-by-step guide on how to do this is provided here. | | | | | ICLEI Oceania is partnering with the Australian Centre for Excellence for Local Government to identify government policy tools that help integrate economic, environmental, social and health goals at the local government level. The study results will be presented during a workshop at Thriving Neighbourhoods Conference 12-14 November at the Melbourne Convention Centre. While the workshop has a local government focus, it will be of great interest to policymakers at other levels of government, developers, professionals and community groups. All conference delegates will receive the Discussion Paper and a summary of the workshop outcomes. For further information visit: http://www.thrivingneighbourhoods.org/ | | | | | The Sydney Community Foundation is inviting community organisations working with disability to participate in the Twenty Years: Twenty Stories project and tell the often heroic stories of people who have used the Disability Discrimination Act to promote equal opportunity and challenge discrimination. The Foundation is seeking Expressions of Interest from community organisations working with people with disability to apply for a film making grant to share an inspirational story. As part of the project, stories and organisations may be profiled in the Twenty Years: Twenty Stories campaign, which will feature on the Australian Human Rights Commission website and as part of a longer film to be screened publically. To apply for a film grant, click here. | | | | | CEEP funding for Round 1 was announced in June 2012 and projects are commencing now. Nearly $36 million was granted to 49 successful councils, however the big figure is $160 million. This is what's left for subsequent rounds! Round 2 is not far off and hints and advice on preparation based on experience from the first round can be accessed here. An excel spreadsheet has also been created with all the information from Round 1, allowing potential applicants to sort by successful council, project type, state, project value and percentage that was applied for. It's all here. | | | | | The Government announced in the 2012-13 Budget additional funding for the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program (HVSPP) with $40 million available in 2012-13 and 2013-14. The program funds projects aimed at improving safety and productivity for the heavy vehicle industry and other road users, such as technology trials addressing speed and fatigue; construction of rest stops and parking on highways; and upgrades to freight routes. The categories of projects eligible for funding include: - rest area projects;
- parking/decoupling bay projects;
- road network enhancement projects;
- technology trial projects;
- demonstration projects; and
- livestock transport industry projects.
As in previous funding rounds, only the states and territories can apply for HVSPP funding. However, Minister Albanese is seeking submissions from key industry stakeholders and local government identifying priority projects. The extent to which project proposals from states demonstrate that industry and local government priorities have been addressed is an appraisal criterion. Submissions should be directed to both the relevant state or territory road agency and the federal Department of Infrastructure and Transport. Further administrative details and the HVSPP Guidelines are available here. The timing for submissions is reasonably tight, with a due date of 30 September 2012. | | |
| | |  Building future prosperity in WA As Australia’s fastest growing state, Western Australia’s planning needs are complex and multifaceted: They require active integration across a wide range of stakeholders and through all levels of government. Attend to uncover strategies on how to: - Implement a more integrated planning framework for better alignment of local and state-based priorities
- Plan with flexibility in mind, to account for a range of possible strong futures
- Improve governance, stakeholder engagement and relationship management across projects
- Align investment decision making with strategic planning
Plan for growth by developing frameworks to enable timely delivery of major projects and key infrastructure. For more details please click here. |
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