 | |  The Prime Minister, Premiers, Chief Ministers and the ALGA President have issued two communiques following the first COAG Leaders' Retreat this week outlining the steps agreed to by the leaders in working towards major reform of Australia's Federation and acting against the threats to the community from violent extremists, family violence and the drug ice. The first communique said that all leaders agreed that the Federation reform process provided a rare opportunity to tackle issues around delivering improved health services, new infrastructure, fair and affordable access to housing, vocational training and a school education system that keeps Australia globally competitive. The communique stated that, if these issues were not addressed, Australians would face the risk of declining services in the future. Mayor Troy Pickard, President ALGA, said the significant fiscal challenges for the Commonwealth, States and Territories discussed at the retreat also have implications for local government's role in terms of maintaining the delivery of quality community services and infrastructure at the local level. The communique indicated that the leaders agreed infrastructure was critical to how people live and move around our cities and regions. It said local governments play a role in the Federation by delivering services and infrastructure with important funding contributions from the Commonwealth and within a legislative and regulatory framework provided by the States and Territories. The second communique focused on counter terrorism arrangements, strategies to reduce violence against women and their children, containing the supply of the drug ice and preventing its use. The communique highlighted that a National Ice Action Strategy would be developed for consideration at the next COAG meeting which would include how to support local communities to respond to the challenges and threat faced from the drug ice. Read the COAG Leaders' first communique at this link. Read the COAG Leaders' second communique at this link. Read ALGA's media release following the COAG Leaders' Retreat at this link. | | | | |  Minister for Social Services, the Hon. Scott Morrison and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women, Senator the Hon. Michaelia Cash announced early in the week that $4 million of grants would be made available for one-off projects addressing domestic violence under the Building Safe Communities for Women and their Children initiative. The grants are open for applications from local government as well as community groups and not-for-profit organisations. Building Safe Communities for Women and their Children is an Australian Government initiative under the COAG's National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children (2010-2022). It builds on the partnership between Australian governments and communities to reduce violence against women and their children. The one-off investment will assist local communities to improve safety for women and their children through locally-based and locally-designed solutions to meet local needs. The grants are designed to support communities to: - develop and implement practical solutions to reduce violence against women and their children in their own community
- help prevent this violence into the future
- make a positive difference for women and their children who are victims of domestic violence.
Building Safe Communities for Women and their Children grants can also be used to better understand the prevalence and impact of domestic violence in the community. Applicants can apply for one-off time limited funding of up to a total of $150,000 over two financial years. Applications close 2:00pm AEST on 27 August. More information about how to apply is available on the Department of Social Services website | | | | |  ALGA News is seeking your feedback on the newsletter and its content! A newsletter is only as good as its relationship with its readers so we're asking for only 5 minutes of your time to tell us what you think about ALGA News to make sure our newsletter best meets your interests. The survey is anonymous so feel free to be honest! Each person who completes the survey will have the opportunity to go into a draw to win one of three copies of Funding the Future: Financial Sustainability and Infrastructure Finance in Australian Local Government. This captivating book by Brian Dollery, Michael Kortt and Bligh Grant looks at the financial pressures Australian local government has faced for the past several decades. In attempting to maintain service levels, most local authorities have invested too little in local infrastructure maintenance and renewal. The main symptom has been a burgeoning infrastructure backlog, which now far exceeds the fiscal capacity of a majority of councils. The book explores other avenues that must now be pursued if Australian local government is to remain viable. The survey will be open until 3 August. Complete the survey now | | |
| |  This week I attended what was a very important and historic COAG Leaders Retreat which provided the opportunity for full and frank discussions between leaders from all jurisdictions on reform of the Federation with the purpose of delivering better quality services across Australia. It was evident that all leaders were committed to substantial reform to improve outcomes for all Australians and I was pleased to see the role of local government in the Federation explicitly acknowledged. At the retreat, I sought support for a number of important issues for local government including a continuation of the direct funding relationship between the Federal and local government and recognition of the uniquely difficult challenge local government faces in asset management. I also took the opportunity to reinforce the need for the Green Paper to address the role of contributors other than the Commonwealth and the states; in particular I sought for recognition of councils and non-government organisations in the delivery of essential services and infrastructure whose efforts will be important if reform is to be successful. This meeting was a vital step in the development of the Green Paper on Reform of the Federation, which aims to stimulate discussion on options that will better align roles and responsibilities between the three levels of government and establish durable funding arrangements, particularly in the areas of health, education, housing and homelessness. I urge all councils to take the opportunity to make submissions to the Green Paper when it is released to provide their perspective on the proposed reform options. The Green Paper process will benefit from concrete examples of how the delivery of the services and infrastructure at the local level can be improved and the role councils can play to achieve that outcome. Mayor Troy Pickard
ALGA President | | |
| | The Local Government Association of Tasmania (LGAT) has presented its highest honour to former President, the late Mayor Barry Jarvis, who died suddenly in early June this year. The Councillor Exemplary Service Award was accepted by Barry's wife, Terri, at a conference dinner in Launceston, where representatives from local government are meeting for the 103rd LGAT Annual Conference. The award was presented jointly by the Acting President of LGAT, Mayor Daryl Quilliam, and the Deputy Mayor of Dorset, Greg Howard, on behalf of the General Management Committee of LGAT. The award recognises distinguished service to the whole of local government. Mayor Jarvis was elected to Dorset Council in 2007 and became Mayor in 2009. He joined the General Management Committee in 2011 and commenced his presidency in October 2014. Mayor Jarvis was the spokesperson for the Regional Council Group from 2012. | | | | | Round two of the Australian Government's National Stronger Regions Fund closes next Friday 31 July. The program is providing funding of $1 billion over five years, commencing in 2015-16, to fund priority infrastructure in regional communities - from freight and transport projects to convention centres and major multipurpose sports facilities with a major focus on strengthening economies in Australia’s regions by improving the productivity, employment, and workforce skills. Projects seeking funding will be considered in consultation with the Government’s National Infrastructure Committee. The Guidelines for the National Stronger Regions Fund provide the information you need about the type of project proposals being considered, how proposals will be assessed, critical dates, and how you contact the Department for Infrastructure and Regional Development to assist you. Further information is available on the Department's website. | | | | | The Government announced in the 2015-16 Federal Budget that changes would be made to the Zone Tax Offset (ZTO) to remove 'fly in-fly out' and 'drive in drive out' (FIFO) employees' eligibility to claim the ZTO. An exposure draft of the amendments has been released for public consultation. The ZTO is a concessional tax offset available to individuals in recognition of the isolation, uncongenial climate and high cost of living associated with living in certain identified locations. Eligibility is based on defined geographical zones. Currently, to be eligible for ZTO, a taxpayer must reside or work in a specified remote area for more than 183 days in an income year. It is estimated that around 20 per cent of all claimants do not actually live full time in the zones. Many of these are FIFO workers who do not face the same challenges of remote living that the ZTO was designed to address. The closing date for submissions is 5 August. More information about making a submission is available on the Treasury Department's website. | | | | | To coincide with the Public Sector's Innovation Month theme of Dare, Dream, Do, the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government has published a new paper called Creative Councils for Creative Communities. The paper, produced in partnership with Marrickville Council (NSW), explores current thinking about creativity in communities, organisations and the public sector and explores the role of creativity as a prerequisite to innovation in local government, particularly during a time of change and reform to the local government sector. The paper demonstrates that a local council can fruitfully draw on a key characteristic of the community in which it is located and thereby supplement its approach to working in and for that community. Marrickville Council's 'Creativity Project' represented an opportunity to more explicitly add creativity to council functioning so as to better serve a community that is well recognised for its creative industries and cultures. Among a number of positive implications of such an approach, councils can improve their performance through incorporating creativity into the culture and operations of their organisation for the benefit of their communities. Download Creative Councils for Creative Communities | | | | | Dropping off the Edge 2015, a report produced by Jesuit Social Services and Catholic Social Services Australia, maps disadvantage across the country based on 22 social indicators including long-term unemployment, criminal convictions and domestic violence. The report shows disadvantage is entrenched in a small number of communities across Australia, most of which have remained similarly disadvantaged for more than a decade. The report also outlines that residents in these communities aren’t just dealing with one form of disadvantage but multiple, complex barriers to individual wellbeing and community participation. According to the report, concentration of disadvantage was found in eleven postcodes in NSW and VIC, seven in SA, six in TAS and WA, four in NT and two in the ACT. The report calls for a new approach targeted at reducing the most severe deep-seated disadvantage, taking into account the unique characteristics and circumstances of each community. View colour-coded maps for five states and search for a particular location to see where it ranks on a range of indicators on the Dropping off the Edge 2015 website. | | | | | The Government announced a new country of origin food labelling system this week which will show consumers where products are made, grown or packaged. The proposed new system will see the continuation of mandatory country of origin labelling for most food offered for retail sale in Australia. In addition to a statement about where the food was produced, grown, made or packaged, most Australian food will carry the familiar kangaroo symbol and an indication of the proportion of Australian ingredients through a statement and a bar graph. The new system will also see clearer rules around when food labels can carry 'made in' or 'packed in' statements. An initial voluntary take-up of the country of origin food labels means the new labels will begin to appear on supermarket shelves as early as later this year. The mandatory rollout will commence in 2016, providing manufacturers with time to implement the new scheme. There will be a phased implementation period for small business. Country of origin labelling was discussed at the recent forum meeting in Hobart with Ministers noting there was broad community interest in improving the country of origin labelling framework in light of consumer concerns about the current Australian labelling framework for food. The forum committed in principle to improving the country of origin labelling framework in Australia. Get more information about the changes on the Department of Industry and Science website. | | | | | Driverless vehicles are no longer just a pipe dream, they're developing at a rapid pace and could be on our roads sooner than originally thought. The South Australian Government is making plans to hold a conference in Adelaide in November to discuss driverless vehicle technology and regulation. It has also announced that the Australian Driverless Vehicle Initiative will see driverless vehicles tested on Adelaide roads. The Australian Road Research Board (ARRB Group) said that the car-only trial will use a Volvo XC 90 with a number of driver aid systems including lane departure correction, self-parking, and self-driving. It will be tested away from general public traffic on closed-off parts of the Southern Expressway in Adelaide, Adelaide Airport, and the Tonsley Innovation Park. While the vehicle will have a human occupant during the trial, it will rely solely on these aids. More information about the Australian Driverless Vehicle Initiative is available on the ARRB Group website. | | | | | Homelessness has been linked to the circumstances, personal characteristics and practices of people who experience it. But homelessness might also be a structural issue with, for example, expensive housing markets and weak labour markets both affecting rates of homelessness. The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) has released a bulletin that presents key findings from the completed AHURI research project The structural drivers of homelessness in Australia 2001-11 which examined, for the first time, the geography of homelessness in Australia and its relationship to potential structural drivers of homelessness (specifically housing and labour markets). One of the key findings determined that homelessness is demographic. Regions with a higher proportion of men, sole parents and Indigenous persons had higher homelessness rates, with greater income inequality and high density dwellings also statistically associated with high homelessness rates. The bulletin also found that regional rates of homelessness were not statistically linked to shortages of affordable housing or high unemployment rates, though segmented housing and labour markets may still play a role. The bulletin concluded that there are large differences in rates of homelessness across Australian regions and that effective policy responses and interventions need to address the distinctive geography of homelessness in Australia. Read the full bulletin at the AHURI website. | | | | | The South Australian Government has established a $2 million program to encourage young people living in the regions to enter the workforce through a two-year traineeship in local government. The Regional Youth Traineeship Program will be available to people aged between 17 and 24 who are unemployed or do not have a full-time job and will include a total of 57 regional councils, including Aboriginal community councils and the Outback Communities Authority. The president of the Local Government Association of SA, Dave Burgess, said the program represented a terrific opportunity for the regions. "Early discussions with councils around the concept of a regional youth traineeship program indicated significant interest and enthusiasm to participate," Mr Burgess said. Read more about the Regional Youth Traineeship Program on the Primary Regions and Industry SA website. | | | | | The Government announced the appointment of Dr Helen Nugent AO as the new Chair of the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC), a government-owned company that manages the nation's interstate rail network. Dr Nugent has been appointed for a period of three years and brings extensive expertise in finance, governance, infrastructure investment, and risk management to the ARTC Board. Dr Nugent’s previous appointments include Partner at global management consultancy, McKinsey & Company and Director of Strategy at Westpac. Over the past 20 years, she has served on multiple boards, both private and not-for-profit, including at Swiss Re Australia, the State Bank of New South Wales and Opera Australia, as well as at infrastructure investment entities including United Energy, Macquarie Airports and Macquarie Group. In 2004, she was made an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) for services to business, the arts and the community. Dr Nugent replaces Mr John Caldon who has held the position of Chair of the ARTC for five years from 2010. | | |
| | |  Providing a national overview of Asset Management Systems, to assist our members with making informed decisions. Choosing which Asset Management System (AMS) is best suited to an individual Local Government (LG) authority can be challenging due to their varied requirements. As a service to its members, ARRB identified a need for a comparative and independent technical review of AMSs commonly in use in the Australian marketplace. The aim of this review is to assist prospective LGs in assessing their AMS needs. The purpose is to ensure that ARRB's members are provided with the best advice to enable them to make well-informed choices in relation to the systems that will best suit their current and future needs. For more information please visit www.arrb.com.au/amsr. |
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