A cheque for $25,000 was presented to the Local Government Association of the Northern Territory (LGANT) by the Minister for Local Government, Tim Baldwin, at the recent LGANT General Committee Meeting in Darwin. This, together with $190,000 pledged by ATSIC to cover the next three years, will enable LGANT to establish a specialised recruitment service for Local Government and remote area Councils.
The service, which commenced this month, aims to address the high attrition rates of skilled Council staff. Particularly for remote areas, this has been an ongoing problem for Local Government in the Territory.
During the General Committee Meeting, LGANT President, Margaret Vigrants, reported that the request by Yulara residents for the return of their Community Government Council has recently been withdrawn. The Council was abolished by the Territory Government last November, with the Council given no prior warning and only two weeks notice of this decision.
“Yulara township will be administered by an umbrella group, comprising representatives from community groups but with no elected members,” she said. “The Company which purchased the resort will give this group $400,000 normally given to Council.
“As the community is happy with this arrangement at this time, we, as an organisation, must accept their decision.”
However, the LGANT meeting resolved that actions by the Territory Government, to freeze funds before the Yulara Council were told they were sacked, needs to be raised when the Memorandum of Understanding between the two spheres of government comes up for its first review in May next year.
The nature of Local Government in the Territory, with many small scattered communities, presents a range of issues not common in other areas. For many Community Government Councils and Incorporated Associations, the Council itself is not only the major employer but, in remote communities, is often the only employer.
This presents a problem where elected members are, in many cases, also employed by the Council. If faced with a decision of one or the other, most elected members would have no other choice but opt for their paid employment. This would then deny Council the attributes of many of its best community leaders.
LGANT resolved that the Council Clerk should not be able to be an elected member on that Council. However, whether this should extend to other Council ‘officers’ needs to be clarified, with who is an ‘officer’ of Council and an ’employee’ a key issue.
It was agreed that the current LGANT format of concurrent meetings for Municipal Councils and Community Government Councils, followed by a joint General Committee Meeting has proved very successful and should be continued. The next LGANT General Committee Meeting is scheduled for 17-18 June at Litchfield.
