The ALGA Board will hold its annual two-day strategic planning meeting in Canberra next week.

The meeting will focus on a review of ALGA's 2014-2017 Strategic Plan which outlines the organisation's core priorities and guides ALGA's advocacy work, representing local government at  a national level.

The ALGA board will also consider details for the ongoing campaign to restore the indexation of Financial Assistance Grants, which was frozen in the 2014 Federal Budget. 

More detail on the outcomes of the board meeting will be in future editions of ALGA News.

Community organisations, environment groups and local councils around Australia are invited to nominate new Green Army projects to support practical environment and conservation activities in their region - with Round 3 of the programme now open for applications.

The Green Army gives Australians aged 17-24 years the opportunity for training and experience in environmental and conservation fields and to explore careers in conservation management.

Successful round 2 projects will be announced shortly.

Applications for projects under Round 3 of the programme close on 17 March 2015.

To be eligible for Round 3, projects sponsors must have at least one project ready to begin between 1 June 2015 and 30 June 2016.

Community information sessions on the Green Army Programme are also underway in each state and territory during February 2015.

Session locations and times are available here.

Further information on the Green Army including project guidelines and the application form is available online here.

Neighbour Day is the perfect opportunity for local councils to bring people together to acknowledge and celebrate the strong sense of neighbourhood many communities have. The day is held on the last Sunday in March every year, and in 2015 it will be Sunday March 29.

When people register an event on the new Neighbour Day website they can access the free e-kit and resources which include:

• posters (can be co-branded and include local sponsors),
• invitations,
• e-cards,
• calling cards,
• signs for selfies and for use at events,
• Certificate of Recognition template (can be co-branded),
• 'How to Council' - tips for making it easy,
• 'How to Social for Councils' - ready-made content for Facebook and Twitter,
• similar resources for general community use,
• media release template for local use, and
• stories, recipes, tip sheets, links to Very Neighbourly Organisations, and more!

The aim is to help grow connected, healthy and resilient neighbourhoods.

Remember to register events to help track participation. Neighbour Day is brought to you by Relationships Australia.

To find out more about our annual national celebration of Neighbour Day visit www.neighbourday.org/, follow us on Facebook facebook.com/neighbourday or Twitter @neighbourday.

The Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government, based at the University of Technology Sydney, will launch Australia's first, extensive profile of the local government workforce, next week.

Centre Director, Associate Professor Roberta Ryan says the report explodes the myth that local government is only about roads, rates and rubbish.

"Local Government is, in fact, an Australian powerhouse, punching above its weight in terms of its contribution to the nation's economy and social fabric, particularly in regional, rural and remote Australia.  

"Local government is a big business.  Australia's 556 local governments employ nearly 200,000 people in a diverse range of roles across the country.  Together, Australia's local governments spend more than $30 billion annually," A/Prof Ryan said.

In a number of rural and remote Local Government Areas across Australia, local government is either the top, or one of the top, employers.

Other key findings include:

• More than 4.5 percent of the local government workforce across Australia is Indigenous. The figure surpasses both state and territory governments (two percent), the federal government (1.5 percent), and the private sector (1.3 percent). Nationally, local government has exceeded the Council of Australian Governments (CoAG) public sector indigenous employment target of 2.6 percent.
• The local government workforce is ageing and, on average, is older compared with other government and industry sectors. According to the ABS Census, 37 percent of the local government workforce is aged 50 years or over, compared to the Australian labour force average of 29 percent. Correspondingly, the proportion of local government employees aged less than 35 years is much lower than the Australian average.

Profile of the Local Government Workforce is free to download from www.acelg.org.au, next week.

The Senate's Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee will hold an inquiry into the future role and contribution of regional capitals to Australia, with the report due by 1 December 2015.

Greens Senator for Tasmania, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said, "In this parliament we spend a lot of time developing policy for big cities and quite a bit of time on rural policies, especially relating to agriculture, but we spend no time at all on the special needs of the unique middle-sized cities dotted around our country.

"Regional capitals, like Launceston or Ballarat or Orange, are blessed with unique challenges and opportunities, and this Inquiry provides the Senate with an opportunity to investigate how we can craft policy specifically to cater for their needs.

"The Inquiry will investigate what policies governments could pursue to help these cities thrive and relieve some of the pressure on the larger metropolises," he said.

Among the issues to be explored are:

1. an assessment of current demographic trends and the changing role of regional capitals;
2. an analysis of current funding provided to regional capitals;
3. an analysis of the benefit of additional funding regional capitals could receive based on population, demand for services and their strategic importance for the region, state or country;
4. investment challenges and opportunities to maintain or grow regional capitals, including infrastructure, community and human services, communications and natural resources;
5. incentives and policy measures that would support sustainable growth in regional capitals;
6. the impact the changing environment will have on regional capitals; and
7. any other related matters.

The Australia Council for the Arts has funded five arts organisations to stage performances,

mentor local artists and engage with audiences to enable regional communities to experience contemporary dance.

Australia Council Director Dance Carin Mistry said the funding would allow regional audiences to see touring productions by major dance companies and choreographers, newly commissioned work and meet the artists through activities such as workshops and Q&A sessions.

"Contemporary dance is not often toured to regional areas, which makes it difficult for audiences to experience this type of dance and increase interest in this artform," Ms Mistry said.

The five organisations to receive funding are:

• Country Arts SA
• Mandurah Performing Arts Centre (WA)
• Ausdance Qld
• Frankston Arts Centre (Vic)
• BlakDance Australia in partnership with Performing Lines (National)

Applications are now open for the Australia Council's new grants model. The first round closes on 3 March.

For more information click here.

Access to faster broadband in remote and regional Australia is one step closer, as the company building the National Broadband Network (NBN) announced on Monday 9 February that construction work is complete on all ten of its satellite ground stations.

These stations will act as a backbone to help deliver NBN services to around 400,000 Australian homes and businesses via two of the biggest telecommunications satellites in the world - a crucial component designed to level the playing field between city and bush.

The news follows a recent Akamai report which ranked Australian Internet speeds at 44th globally, suggesting many schools, businesses and homes in remote areas are at risk of falling behind in a vastly competitive digital world.

NBN Co's Satellite Architect, Julia Dickinson said many people in bigger cities take for granted the benefits that fast broadband provides.

To mark the milestone, NBN Co is launching the 'Shoot for the Stars' competition to give Aussie school kids aged 5-12 the opportunity to decorate the nose cone of the rocket which will launch the first satellite into space. In addition, the grand prize winner and their school will have the opportunity to name the satellite, etching their place in history.

For entry details and terms and conditions on the 'Shoot for the Stars' competition please click here.

Surf Life Saving Australia's interactive online resource Tsunami: The Ultimate Guide, funded by the Australian Government, is a valuable resource which can be used by individuals and schools to educate on all aspects of tsunami hazards.

The release of the guide coincided with Australia's participation in an international tsunami warning exercise PacWAVE15 last week - a Pacific-wide exercise to evaluate the effectiveness of the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (PTWS), and to measure the readiness of countries in the Pacific Ocean to respond to distant and local tsunamis.

Australia's participation in PacWAVE15 is coordinated by the Bureau of Meteorology, in consultation with the relevant authorities and jurisdictions, including state and territory members of the Australian Tsunami Advisory Group (ATAG) of the Australia-New Zealand Emergency Management Committee.

On average, Australia experiences the effects of a tsunami about once every four years. Typically they cause dangerous rips, waves and strong currents which are hazardous to swimmers and boaters.

The guide was recognised for its importance when Surf Life Saving Australia received a Highly Commended award as a Project of National Significance at the 2014 Resilient Australia Awards.

The guide was funded through the Australian Government's National Emergency Management Projects (NEMP) program which funds emergency management projects of national significance.

Tsunami: The Ultimate Guide can be accessed here.

The proportion of Australians who were born overseas has hit its highest point in 120 years, with 28 per cent of Australia's population - 6.6 million people - born overseas, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

"Australia traditionally had a high proportion of migrants, but we've now hit a peak not seen since the gold rushes of the late 1800s," said Denise Carlton from the ABS.

"Overseas migration has been a large contributor to the total Australian population growth for several years - it has consistently been the main driver since 2005-06, contributing more than 50 per cent of population growth in Australia.

"While the largest migrant groups were people born in the United Kingdom and New Zealand - with a total of over 1.8 million Australian residents being born in those two countries, the next two most common birth places were from the Asian region.

"These were China and India, with around 450,000 and 400,000 people respectively.

More information on migrants living in Australia, and data on overseas and interstate migration can be found in Migration, Australia, 2013-14 (cat. no. 3412.0), available from www.abs.gov.au.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is seeking comment from potentially affected apparatus licensees and other stakeholders on a draft reallocation recommendation for the regional 1800 MHz radio frequency spectrum.

The ACMA proposes to recommend to the Minster for Communication that the frequency ranges 1725-1785 MHz and 1820 - 1880 MHz in regional Australia be declared for allocation via the issue of spectrum licences.

The increasing availability of Long Term Evolution (LTE) broadband mobile telecommunications technology using the 1800 MHz band has led to an increasing demand for access to it in regional areas to deploy mobile telecommunications services.  1800 MHz band spectrum in the major cities is already licensed and used extensively, mainly for 4G mobile telecommunications.

The ACMA invites written comments on the terms of the draft recommendation and other matters raised in the discussion paper by 11 March 2015.

The discussion paper, Draft spectrum reallocation recommendation for the 1800 MHz band - Regional areas of Australia is available here.