The Howard Government’s alleged rorting of the Regional Partnerships Program caught the attention of the nation. And the decision to fund the desilting of Tumby Creek near Gosford, in the electorate of then Local Government Minister, Jim Lloyd, was the lightning rod.
While Jim is a good bloke, he narrowly lost the seat to Belinda Neal last November. Now Ms Neal and Iguana Joe’s at Gosford have been hit by lightning, although my spies tell me that Iguana Joe’s has had a surge of business.
However the problems for Neal’s husband, NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca, and NSW Premier Iemma, could now spin completely out of control.
Gosford is on the map! (Coincidentally, Neal and Lloyd are former Gosford City Councillors.)
Brotherly love constrains program delivery
Running agendas across Federal and State Governments is a nightmare, but supposedly easier now they’re all Labor. Wrong! The silos are still there.
Anyway, we are currently assisting a Local Government client in New South Wales to secure a cocktail of funds for a great eco-tourism project, with nice historical and cultural themes.
But the Federal programs have been massacred, and the NSW programs never amounted to much anyway. So I got to thinking about whether Martin Ferguson, the Federal Minister for Tourism, might care to speak to his NSW counterparts to see about a funding cocktail.
Then I read that Ferguson’s brother-in-law is Paul Lynch, NSW Minister for Local Government! So that’s the end of that idea, given political sensitivities – see opening paragraphs above.
On the other hand, if we got Ministers out of the decision making process, we could get on with it – see article below. (Lynch is a former Liverpool City Councillor.)
Regional
Development Inquiry
Minister for Infrastructure (and Regional Development) Albanese has asked a House of Representatives Standing Committee to inquire into the Performance Audit of the Regional Partnerships Program. Never ending story. My Cockatoo Network has a firm position. It is set out in ‘The Regional Partnerships Program – the Smoking Gun’, which is on our blog. We will be making a submission to the Standing Committee – contact us if you’d like to piggy back.
Our basic line is:
- Ministers cannot help
themselves – so get them out
of the decision making loop. - The RDA Committees
(the former ACCs) should be
merged with State boards
where possible. - The Feds should not even
think about strict regional
boundaries for such bodies. - Regional coordinators
(senior Federal officials)
should be in regions with
a cheque book to cut down
the delays and cost of making
submissions. Rorters go
to jail.
Invest Australia’s demise
Invest Australia disappeared this month as part of the Feds’ cost savings. We cannot reconcile this, when industry policy is at the crossroads and global partners are more important than ever. Invest Australia’s 130 staff were cast to the four winds, with around 30–35 staff being absorbed within Austrade as an investment attraction unit.
Invest Australia had a low profile, but it was doing a very good job. The risks are that plonking the investment function into Austrade could bury it. We will fall further behind Ireland, the UK, France, Singapore and so forth, and regional Australia is still left out in the cold.
‘Regional Bound’ program?
My Cockatoo Network is currently liaising with local councils in NSW, and Federal/State agencies and MPs, about supporting an exciting and timely ‘Regional Bound’ program. It involves councils identifying towns in rural areas that want to provide live in educational facilities for city kids (Year 9). Precedents such as the Wesley campus at Clunes in Central Victoria and Outward Bound are being analysed.
We have had a wonderful response. The aim is to get the agenda moving in NSW and then extend to other States. More next month – but contact us now for details.
Collaborative innovation in government needed, says US study
Government agencies need to embrace new models of innovation, according to a report sponsored by the IBM Center for the Business of Government. The study reviews new innovation models – dubbed ‘network based collaborative innovation’ – as pioneered by leading firms such as Procter & Gamble, 3M and so forth. This approach links organisations to outside networks to generate a broader, more diverse set of ideas and solutions. In the process, the speed of innovation is increased. Many thorny public policy issues – for example environmental conservation and disaster response – could benefit from this model.
Government agencies aren’t suited to this approach, thus placing a premium on openness and close collaboration. Go to www.businessofgovernment.org/pdfs/NambisanReport.pdf
Local development benefits from staging global events
The competition to stage major global events – Olympic Games, EXPOs, cultural festivals and summits – is intense. It’s partly explained by media attention, sponsorship and the longer term local benefits, such as improved infrastructure, revenues from tourism and trade, jobs and heightened civic pride. The OECD has just released a book on this subject – to purchase, go to www.oecd.org and tell Lucy I sent you. This book identifies how such events trigger local development and how the hosts can ensure that positive local development is realised. It reviews experience from 30 cities.
*Rod Brown is a Canberra-based consultant specialising in industry/regional development, investment attraction, clusters and accessing Federal grants. He can be contacted at apd@orac.net.au or phone (02) 6231 7261. Go to our blog at www.investmentinnovation.wordpress.com for 400+ articles on issues relevant
to Local Government.
