In each edition we feature the views of a Local Government Association president. The following is from Mayor Joy Baluch, President of the Local Government Association of South Australia.
November 2008 will, I hope, be seen as a key turning point in Australia’s history.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Minister Albanese, and other members of the Federal Cabinet made a very public commitment to a new partnership with Local Government. A new $300 million for local infrastructure was a clear demonstration of this commitment.
The Local Government Association of South Australia is sending two messages to all our councils on this funding. Firstly, that our performance in managing this expenditure is on the line and, secondly, unless you are projecting surplus budgets into the future you should use these funds for renewal projects rather than new infrastructure.
I am confident that all SA councils will spend the new funding quickly and within Commonwealth guidelines and the LGA will be there to assist them in any way we can.
On the second point, the Prime Minister’s speech gave some clear messages regarding infrastructure and asset management planning.
We are all politicians and we are all keen to deliver new things for our communities. However as a result of work by all State/Territory Local Government Associations we know most councils have infrastructure backlogs and many are running deficit budgets.
We also know that our business is three times as asset intensive as State Governments’ and more than 24 times as asset intensive as the Commonwealth Government’s business.
If we can’t demonstrate that we can maintain our assets, why would governments want to continue to invest through us?
In my view the Commonwealth is entitled to restrict infrastructure funding so it is applied only
for renewal projects in any council which is projecting
deficit budgets over a specified period – possibly with exceptions for small/remote councils unlikely ever to be sustainable without external funding.
The other major message I took away from the forum in Canberra was the high level of commitment of senior members of Federal Cabinet to a new partnership.
In SA, we have already adopted four key national priority areas – water; affordable housing and development; roads and infrastructure; and climate change – and we back the Australian Local Government Association’s four priorities of fair funding, fair treatment, formal recognition and future challenges.
I believe our Associations will be placed under considerable pressure to brief, focus and assist councils to lift their eyes from the local, to the ALGA and Commonwealth agenda for nation building.
We know our local patch better than anyone else but I saw some of us struggle in Canberra to make the links between those local issues and the very high level national agendas.
It’s great to see the Commonwealth commit to changing its focus to try harder to listen to us. There is an equal challenge on us to be able to meet them halfway.
