The Town of Kwinana, the Shire of Swan and the City of Bunbury recently won the Alcoa of Australia Leadership in Best Practice Award in the inaugural 1998 Western Australian Municipal Association Awards for Best Practice in Local Government.
“The awards attracted a total of 53 entries from 22 Councils, far exceeding expectations for the inaugural year,” said John Martin, Director Strategy at WAMA.
The awards have been developed by WAMA as part of its approach to providing leadership to Local Government, particularly in the area of reform.
The Alcoa Leadership Award is the premier award. It is presented to those Councils that demonstrate clear and active leadership in implementing best practice standards across all reform areas.
Kwinana’s success came about through Council having the vision to embark on a process of improvement through change and the commitment and dedication of the staff to achieve best practice in the workplace.
An example was Kwinana’s comprehensive enterprise bargaining agreement which led to the development of key performance indicators, benchmarking and quality accreditation.
“The award recognises the hard work of the staff and the support of the Council for their programs,” said Frank Edwards, Kwinana’s CEO. “While this recognition provides a great boost to the Town, much work still remains to be done to build on the gains we have made.”
WAMA’s five other award categories represent the individual ‘building blocks’ of best practice standards. They include the following.
- Main Roads Competitive Reform
- Benchmarking
- Customer Service
- Quality and Innovation
- Workplace Change.
The Best Practice Award category winners are as follows.
Main Roads Competitive Reform Award
Town of Bassendean – Community Services Directorate and Children’s Services Unit and the Town’s whole organisation
Benchmarking
Town of Victoria Park
Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council
Customer Service
City of Bayswater
City of Joondalup
Quality and Innovation
Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale
Town of Cambridge
Town of Bassendean
City of Joondalup
Workplace Change
City of Joondalup
City of Perth
City of Rockingham
Town of Bassendean
As well as awards for best practice, two other levels of award were made for each category. The first, ‘Advancement’, is for Councils advancing towards best practice and, the second, ‘Commitment’, is for Councils committed to developing best practice principles.
For further information contact John Martin, telephone (08) 9321 5055.
