President's column
Last Sunday, the Prime Minister the Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP called a double dissolution election to be held on Saturday 2 July, marking the beginning of an election campaign lasting almost two months. With the election campaign officially set in motion, local government has an opportunity to advance some of the key issues that are important to our sector.
ALGA has already begun to implement an election advocacy strategy, developed and fine-tuned over the past 12 months, which takes a three-pronged approach.
Firstly, ALGA's plan, Local Government's Plan for an Innovative and Prosperous Australia, has already been provided to all Federal politicians and all major political parties
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NSW amalgamated councils announced
NSW Local Government Minister, Paul Toole MP, has announced the NSW council mergers, with 19 amalgamations or boundary changes determined by the Government across Sydney and NSW.
The Minister also indicated his in-principle support to create a further 9 new councils, subject to the decision of the courts.
Some of the newly formed councils will include:
Canterbury-Bankstown Council : The merger of Bankstown City and Canterbury City councils
NGA motions debate set to be wide-ranging
ALGA has received more than 130 motions for our National General Assembly to be held in Canberra next month from 19 - 22 June, demonstrating the enthusiasm of councils to debate and discuss issues of importance to the sector and participating in the opportunity to shape ALGA policy.
The motions cover a broad range of topics including Financial Assistance Grants, Roads to Recovery and other government grant programs, freight improvements, rate capping, tax reform, community infrastructure funding proposals
ALGA 2016 Election Advocacy Focus - FAGs
The ALGA 2016 Election Advocacy Focus is a pop up segment in ALGA News that will focus on a key aspect of ALGA's election plan each week. This week we begin with ALGA's call to restore the indexation of Financial Assistance Grants (FAGs).
Restore the indexation of FAGs
Local government currently receives general purpose funding from the Australian Government as FAGs. The decision in the 2014-15 Federal budget to freeze the indexation of the FAGs until 2017-18 had, and will continue to have, significant long-term impacts on councils, undermining equitable access to facilities and services.
Latest News
New Notice reduces workload for local government road managers
The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has released Australia's first gazette Notice for Performance Based Standards
The Australian Water Safety Strategy 2016-2020
The Australian Water Safety Strategy 2016-2020 was recently launched by the Hon. Sussan Ley MP, Minister for Health
Make your submissions on barriers to driverless vehicles
The National Transport Commission (NTC) has released regulatory options for automated vehicles
Citizens urged to enrol now for the 2016 Federal election
The Federal election has been announced and Australians must act now to ensure they are enrolled by the deadline of 8pm on 23 May 2016.
New emergency management scholarships for Australian volunteers
The Minister for Justice, the Hon. Michael Keenan MP, recently announced a boost disaster resilience through supporting education.
NBN resource for council websites
Since the launch of Sky Muster there have been many enquiries all over the country to check for eligibility.
Practical tools for building collaborative services
With the broad economic challenges of local government in both the national and state arena and the continuing necessity to galvanise opportunity
New Notice reduces workload for local government road managers
The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has released Australia's first gazette Notice for Performance Based Standards
The Australian Water Safety Strategy 2016-2020
The Australian Water Safety Strategy 2016-2020 was recently launched by the Hon. Sussan Ley MP, Minister for Health
Make your submissions on barriers to driverless vehicles
The National Transport Commission (NTC) has released regulatory options for automated vehicles
Citizens urged to enrol now for the 2016 Federal election
The Federal election has been announced and Australians must act now to ensure they are enrolled by the deadline of 8pm on 23 May 2016.
New emergency management scholarships for Australian volunteers
The Minister for Justice, the Hon. Michael Keenan MP, recently announced a boost disaster resilience through supporting education.
NBN resource for council websites
Since the launch of Sky Muster there have been many enquiries all over the country to check for eligibility.
Practical tools for building collaborative services
With the broad economic challenges of local government in both the national and state arena and the continuing necessity to galvanise opportunity
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27th ARBB Conference - Early bird registration is now open!
16th-18th November 2016 | Melbourne, Australia
12 - 13 July 2016, Novotel Canberra
Spreading Collaboration, Engagement and Cultivating Sustainability
Community and Stakeholder Engagement in the Australian Public Sector
One-day case study led forum, two post-forum workshops
12-13 July 2016, Novotel Canberra
Vendor Neutral - No Sales Presentations
Hear practical case studies and strategies from:
- Canberra Metro
- Bang the Table
- Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (SA Murray-Darling Basin)
- Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning
- PLUM Communication
- ACT Emergency Services Agency
- Kintsugi Alliance
- WWF-Australia
- Sydney Water
Assets deliver important services to communities. But a key issue facing all levels of government throughout Australia is the management of complex and ageing asset portfolios.
With an increase in the availability of data and the need to achieve maximum value from current assets, there is an opportunity to make evidence based decisions for organisations to become responsive to customer needs.
Ahead of the Public Sector Asset Management Summit Graeme Brown, General Manger - Assets, Department of Planning, Transport & Infrastructure (DPTI) SA, shares exclusive insights into the DPTI’s unique asset management framework.
You can learn more about:
- Conceptualising asset management into 3 categories to meet community & regulatory needs at the same time
- Conducting asset condition assessments to monitor infrastructure lifecycle & performance
For further insight into Public Sector Asset Management Summit, download the agenda.
Safe Cities Conference
Pullman Melbourne on the Park, 22 - 23 August 2016
With a focus on the development of resilient cities, designing out crime within urban environments, social investment in our communities and public safety, the Safe Cities Conference includes expert speakers within research, design thinking, ethics and cyber security.
The conference will provide a platform of discussion that began in 2015 for professionals involved with providing safe and secure urban communities and includes workshops, presentations and forums to share experiences and the challenges of designing, planning and maintaining safe places to live.
To submit your Abstract for speaking or Register to attend visit safecities.net.au or phone the Conference Secretariat on (07) 5502 2068.
25th - 27 July 2016
The Royce Hotel, Melbourne, VIC
The government is pumping billions of dollars into new transport infrastructure. Customer experience is critical in ensuring patronage increases to receive the best ROI and to avoid these assets becoming underutilised.
Real time information, utilisation of customer feedback and data, ticketing and payment innovation and customer perception of public transport are some of the key factors that will ultimately drive customer satisfaction.
With that in mind, the Customer Experience for Transport Summit has been launched to address these challenges.
Draw on the expertise of 20+ CX industry leaders including:
- Simon Reed, Head of Bus Systems and Technology, Transport for London
- Emilie Perrot, Director Customer Experience, Yarra Trams
- Mark Meade, Customer Insights Manager, Public Transport Victoria
- Adrian Dessanti, A/Principal Manager, Bus and Ferry Planning, Transport for NSW
- Steve Mitchinson, Director of Customer Service Delivery, Department of Transport, WA
- Plus more
Download the full agenda for more information.