 | |  As Australians wait for a firm election date, the local government sector is moving ahead with its national campaign to convince voters to say 'yes' when they are asked whether local government should be included in the Constitution at a referendum to be held in conjunction with this year's federal election. The Australian Government has given every indication that the referendum will proceed and this week it again reinforced its absolute commitment to holding a referendum on recognising local government in the Constitution at the coming federal election. Minister for Local Government, Catherine King told national media this week that a referendum is incredibly important for local government but "more importantly, for the hundreds and hundreds of local communities that they represent across the country". "It does mean that if we get constitutional recognition for the third tier of government, local government, that federal government funding can continue to flow for important programs like Roads to Recovery, which have been critical for regional communities across this country," Minister King said. Minister King also reinforced that there is widespread support for the referendum to go ahead. "I think there's overwhelming support both within the Parliament but from local government themselves," Minister King said. "You have to look at the numbers in Parliament. There are only two members of Parliament who voted for the 'no' case. Overwhelmingly, the Parliament has supported this referendum. "The Government is determined, the Parliament has determined, that there will be a referendum for local governments' full constitutional recognition. "I think we've determined that the referendum will go ahead, and that's obviously in terms of the commitments that we've made as a Parliament to the Australian Local Government Association." | | | | |  ALGA was represented at the ACT's official NAIDOC Week celebration, involving a flag raising ceremony and reception in Canberra this week. The event was one of hundreds held across the country this week. However, flag raising ceremonies are just one of a few types of events that have taken place, with some communities marking NAIDOC Week with Dreamtime story-telling and cultural displays. The Canberra ceremony was attended by local Ngunnawal elders, students, political leaders and citizens. Local government, as always, is showing continued engagement in this and other celebrations of Australia’s Indigenous heritage. Many NAIDOC Week events were either organised by local government authorities or held at council chambers or council-owned community centres. There is a strong and committed relationship between local government and Indigenous Australians and that relationship only continues to strengthen over time. The raising of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags alongside the Australian national flag represents the importance of Australia’s Indigenous cultures and communities within the broader national identity. This is carried out along with a “Welcome to Country”, during which an elder welcomes representatives to their native lands. This event retains strong links to the past, to remind people that in order to move forward, the past must be acknowledged. NAIDOC Week has a long history going back more 90 years in the Indigenous rights movement. NAIDOC’s predecessors emerged out of a protest movement about Aboriginal displacement by European settlement. However as time wore on and the relationship and understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians improved, the nature of NAIDOC commemorations became less about mourning the past and more about recognising and celebrating a united future. | | | | |  ALGA Vice President Keith Rhoades attended last week's Standing Council on Police and Emergency Management (SCPEM) meeting in Darwin to discuss a wide range of national emergency management issues, including measures to strengthen community resilience to disasters. SCPEM includes Australian and New Zealand ministers for police and emergency management and police commissioners, as well as an ALGA representative and promotes a coordinated national response to law enforcement and emergency management issues. Ministers welcomed the significant amount of work being progressed at the national, state and local levels that contributes to implementation of the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience, which was endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments in February 2011 to strengthen community resilience to disasters. Ministers agreed to focus the forward work plan on disaster mitigation; increased engagement with the private and not-for-profit sector; and improving the resilience of vulnerable sections of society, including indigenous Australians, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, children and youth, the elderly and people with disabilities. The National Partnership Agreement on Natural Disaster Resilience provides funding of approximately $26 million each year to support disaster resilience initiatives that are aligned to the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience and state and territory disaster risk assessments. Ministers expressed their support for ongoing negotiations on the development of a new two-year agreement. Cr Rhoades noted that the renewed focus on disaster mitigation in the Standing Council's work plan reflected ALGA's own emphasis on this area in ALGA's 2013 election document - A 10 Point Plan for Resourcing Community Resources - which calls for greater investment by the Commonwealth in natural disaster mitigation initiatives. | | |
| |  With planning well underway for our annual National Local Roads and Transport Congress to be held in Alice Springs from 12-14 November, I would like to take this opportunity to encourage every council to ensure that they are represented at this important event. Themed Sustaining our Roads - Good Business, Good Governance, Good Bottom line, this year's Congress will be used to reflect on the state of our nation's roads and the future direction of roads and transport in Australia. The Congress will examine details of major national transport reforms, with discussions on issues such as user pay models of charging and investment in roads, facilitating greater use of higher productivity heavy vehicles, exploring freight management options, and the general funding and provision of local roads. Our keynote speaker is leading roads and transport expert from Canada, Casey Vander Ploeg - a senior policy analyst with the Canada West Foundation. Casey Ploeg has been with the Foundation for 21 years and during this time has authored and co-authored more than 75 published research reports and policy studies. Mr Ploeg's work on municipal finance and infrastructure has drawn significant attention and has established him as one of Canada's foremost experts in the area. ALGA will also be launching the State of the Local Road Assets Report 2013 at the Congress. This report will provide an analysis of a complete national data set on roads from all our local governments for the first time. Please don't miss your opportunity to reflect on road and transport issues significant to your local community. To be a part of this year's Congress, register your interest to attend by clickinghere.
Mayor Felicity-ann Lewis
ALGA President | | |
| | Applications opened on Friday 21 June 2013 for the Regional Development Australia Fund (RDAF) Round Five, which will provide a further $150 million to local communities. This includes an injection of $45 million from the Australian Government’s Liveable Cities program to provide grants to urban local governments. Based on the current distribution of the $2 billion a year provided in Financial Assistance Grants to local government, Round Five is allocated to councils and shires across Australia to help build and renew community infrastructure. It is part of a plan to continue to create jobs and growth in regional, local and urban communities by funding 'shovel-ready' projects that offer benefits and have an immediate impact. Sporting facilities, libraries, town halls, playgrounds and essential community services such as child care premises are expected to benefit from this investment in every local community. Round Five closes on 22 July 2013. Details about RDAF Round Five can be found on the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport website at http://regional.gov.au/regional/programs/rdaf_round_five.aspx. | | | | | Round 2 of the Tourism Industry Regional Development Fund (TIRF) Grants Program was recently launched - it is a sister program to TQUAL. It offers grants from $50,000–$250,000 on a matched dollar-for-dollar funding basis, to assist tourism operators increase the quality and range of visitor experiences in regional Australia. Funding of $9.6 million is available for eligible projects, with about 50 projects expected to be funded in this round. Online applications close at 11.59pm AEST on Wednesday 7 August 2013. For more information, or to apply, click here. | | | | | ALGA President Felicity-ann Lewis will present at this year's Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia (FECCA) conference to be held on 7-8 November on the Gold Coast. The biennial conference draws together leading decision makers, thinkers and practitioners to discuss and debate the key issues that relate to Australia's cultural and linguistic diversity as relevant to this year's theme: Breaking down the barriers: A strength-based approach for a just society. Guests attending the conference dinner will hear the fresh perspective of grassroots mentor, activist for Indigenous youth and 2013 Young Australian of the Year, Akram Azimi, whose personal insights on breaking down barriers are certain to inspire listeners. Visit www.fecca2013.com for registration fees, program and speaker information and to register online. For more information please visit www.fecca2013.com or contact the Conference Secretariat - Expert Events on fecca2013@expertevents.com.au or telephone: 07 3848 2100. | | | | | A new report on Australia's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) workforce points the way forward to delivering solutions to the nation's ICT skills shortage and boosting productivity in the digital age. Minister for Skills, Brendan O'Connor, and the Minister Assisting for the Digital Economy, Senator Kate Lundy, this week welcomed the report and noted the 16 recommendations of the ICT Workforce Study. The report itself was one of the key recommendations from the Australian Government's ICT Skills Forum that was held in Parliament House in November 2012. Produced by the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency (AWPA), the report shows that the ICT workforce is expected to grow by 7.1 per cent to almost 500,000 from 2012 to 2017 and examines the key issues that limit the supply of domestic ICT skills. It highlights issues such as the out-dated perceptions of ICT careers, low numbers of female and mature-age workers in the ICT workforce and industry views that tertiary ICT graduates are not work ready. Mr O'Connor said the report was an important part of the Government's response to the ICT skills shortage and identified the key challenges that lay ahead. "The newly-established ICT Industry Working Group will carry forward this report and address key recommendations from the report relevant to the ICT industry," Mr O'Connor said. | | | | | The Lord Mayors of Australia's capital cities are calling on Federal politicians to commit to ongoing investment in urban infrastructure to build the nation’s competitiveness and improve the wellbeing of all Australians. Releasing new landmark research by the Allen Consulting Group, commissioned by the CCCLM "Nation Building Projects for Australia's Capital Cities: Securing our cities’ future", CCCLM Chair and Lord Mayor of Brisbane Graham Quirk called on Australia's federal leaders to invest in city infrastructure. "Australia's economic competitiveness is tied to the strength of our cities, which in turn is tied to the quality of our infrastructure; and today’s research confirms that money invested in urban infrastructure is money well spent," said Lord Mayor Quirk. The research involves an analysis of urban infrastructure projects identified by the Lord Mayors as important to Australia’s capital cities, assessing the economic impact from the construction and operation of specific projects ranging from improved urban transport (road, passenger and light rail, and active travel) to precinct renewal. "The research shows that collectively, once operational the projects identified by Lord Mayors are estimated to deliver an annualised and ongoing $1.81 billion boost to our cities Gross Regional Product," said Lord Mayor Quirk. The research reinforces the results of previous studies commissioned by ALGA, including the 2013-14 State of the Regions Report, which suggest that community infrastructure requires increased funding from the Commonwealth. | | | | | Councils across central and western Victoria are hoping to slash electricity bills by replacing street light globes with more energy efficient items. The Federal Government will spend $5 million on the project, while the 16 councils will contribute about $2.5 million. The new globes will be rolled out over the next three years, including in the West Wimmera, Yarriambiack and Swan Hill municipalities. The chairman of the Wimmera Mallee Sustainability Alliance, Ray Kingston, says the new light globes will save money by using about a third of the energy. "In a purely power saving capacity, these light globes will use about one-third the electricity," he said. "So immediately these light globes will go into each council - the project will take three years - but immediately when they go in your power savings will be a third of what they were." | | | | | The Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) has provided a submission to the Victorian Department of Health identifying key issues that need to be considered in the development of legislation for outdoor smoking bans in children’s playgrounds, skate parks, public swimming pools and children’s sporting events. Implementation timetables need to be realistic to allow time for signage to be put up across the state, and a strong education campaign needs to be undertaken to raise community awareness about the bans when they commence. MAV has suggested that given the complexities of drafting time-based laws for the many different sporting events and locations, reductions in the incidence of smoking at children’s sporting events will be better achieved through non-regulatory measures. These could include the Victorian Government developing innovative signage for sporting fields providing information materials for sporting organisations; and working with local government to develop model local laws that could apply which can be modified to suit local conditions. The submission also reiterates smoking bans for alfresco dining areas remains an area of priority for state-wide laws. | | | | | Council leaders and disaster staff from across Queensland attended a summit in Brisbane recently to debrief on the severe floods earlier this year. Mayors, disaster coordinators and SES controllers assessed each others' performances and looked at how they can do things better in future. The Local Government Association of Queensland ran the summit. CEO Greg Hallam said it was an important process for Queensland's 44 new mayors. "In the event that you're isolated, and inevitably you are, that you've got staff that can't get in, that you've got all sorts of crises happening, you know, life and death situations - they're not alone," he said. "Someone else has been through the experience, that they've got other people that they can call on. "In the times between disasters we can do that learning and they can see from others how they've dealt with a situation. "The big focus is on learning." | | | | | Australia's small to medium-sized businesses will receive support to take up new opportunities in Asian markets under a new $36 million national investment unveiled this week. Trade Minister Richard Marles and Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr said the new National Centre for Asia Capability will be based in Melbourne and Sydney with funding provided for national program delivery through the University of Melbourne's Asialink. "The centre will act as a hub, drawing existing resources together to better use their potential," Mr Marles said. "It will tap into the expertise of business and community organisations, peak bodies, training providers and business councils to help business leaders develop a deeper knowledge and expertise of Asian countries and cultures. "The centre will also forge new partnerships to help businesses develop the Asia-relevant capabilities they need to better access growing markets in our region. Senator Kim Carr said the Australian Government was investing in the abilities and relationships that will drive Australia's economic and jobs growth in the years ahead. "This is a significant and timely Australian Government investment in building Australian workforce capability," Senator Carr said. "The business community wants to build skills, supply chains and other key networks but small and medium-sized firms are not always able to make these international connections on their own. "The Government is stepping in to help them do this - to help Australian businesses compete and thrive in the century ahead. We want them to get a head start on the opportunities of the future as we grow and transform our economy and our core industries." | | | | | A new web portal will take students and teachers directly to a number of iconic Australian institutions through a partnership developed between Virtual Excursions Australia and arts, cultural, science and education organisations. Minister Assisting for Innovation and Industry and the Digital Economy Senator Kate Lundy this week launched Virtual Excursions Australia (VEA) at the Interactive Technology in Education Conference (ITEC 2013) at the Sydney Opera House. “The Virtual Excursions web portal is an initiative that will help transform education in Australia and ensure it is an experience that goes far beyond the traditional classroom walls,” said Senator Lundy. “Not all locations are accessible to all students, all of the time and virtual excursions allow classrooms to be transported to some of Australia’s most important arts, cultural, science, and education institutions. “There are some fantastic institutions across Australia that have joined the program to open their virtual doors to classrooms, including the Australian Museum, Sydney Opera House, and Questacon. “The Virtual Excursions project will be particularly useful for those in regional and rural Australia where research has found that for people in regional centres the relative cost of excursions ranges from 20 to 100 per cent higher than in capital cities. For students in remote areas that figure can be 200 to 500 per cent higher. “Teachers will have access to tools to book and plan virtual excursions through the Virtual Excursions Australia website which acts as a portal for teachers wanting information about video conferencing events and content providers," Senator Lundy said. For more information, please visit www.virtualexcursionsaustralia.com.au | | |
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