The Department of Local Government is demonstrating the ongoing commitment to Local Government in the Northern Territory to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery.
The Department is currently working on the third edition of Northern Territory Local Government Performance.
The use of performance indicators by Local Government is a significant part of the process to achieve the following.
- Improve internal management practices
- Provide external proof of performance
- Provide impetus for improved performance
- Enhance accountability
- Improve relationships between the Territory Government and Local Government
- Better inform communities.
Good performance indicators are designed to measure a set of agreed objectives or outcomes. They measure efficiency – ‘doing things right’ (cost) and effectiveness – ‘doing the right things right’.
The level of development of performance indicators for Local Government varies considerably within Australia and a variety of approaches have been adopted for the implementation of performance measurement.
However, all Local Governments in all States and Territories are committed to these principles.
The performance indicators detailed in the publication Northern Territory Local Government Performance will enable the community, as well as Councils, to assess the performance of its Council both over time and in comparison to others.
It is hoped that this will lead to improvements in performance and the emergence of industry benchmarks for service delivery as well as the development of ‘best practice’ service delivery models.
The Department encourages all local governing bodies in the Territory to use this publication as the basis for sharing ideas to improve the delivery of core Local Government services to their communities.
