Special Award for Outstanding Achievement
Whittlesea City Council, Victoria
FoodSmart – Food Safety Plans Online
Local Governments, as leading innovators, can develop solutions that have a far wider application than their immediate sphere of influence. In 2002, the City of Whittlesea’s FoodSmart: Food Safety Plans Online project developed an online compliance software package to meet Victorian legislation requirements. In developing FoodSmart, Whittlesea consulted widely, engaging the relevant stakeholders from a number of organisations. The project achieved its objectives: it delivered a solution that simplifies the legislative requirements for food businesses and helps Local Government to assess food safety plans. FoodSmart delivers efficiency gains and lowers costs, so benefiting local food businesses and Local Government. The benefits of the project have already been shared across Victoria, and have the potential to spill into other States. The Whittlesea City Council has won the Information Technology Category for the past three years; it is outstanding in this field. In recognition of demonstrated sustained excellence and innovation in Information Technology, Whittlesea City Council has been awarded the inaugural Special Award for Outstanding Achievement.
Contact Mr Neill Hocking
Telephone (03) 9217-2335 Fax (03) 9217-2111 Email nfh@whittlesea.vic.gov.au
National Award for Innovation
Shire of Gingin, Western Australia
Perth North Region Emergency Service Directory and Avon Emergency Services Directory
The Perth North Region Emergency Service Directory and Avon Emergency Service Directory Project is an excellent example of innovative practice. Large and small Councils became partners in order to achieve a shared objective of significance to all the communities involved. Sharing resources and costs made a large project possible; one that Councils, particularly the smaller Councils, might not have been able to achieve individually. The collaboration of seven Local Government authorities, four State Government agencies and the St John Ambulance was a significant coordination exercise and partnership for Local Government. The involvement of district volunteers in data collection, mapping and verification ensured shared ownership in the product and its subsequent veracity. This cross-region approach to emergency service delivery means the security of knowing that, during a major regional emergency, all service units are working from a single, verified data source. The process is readily and simply transferable to a huge number of areas across Australia and internationally.
Contact Mrs Wendy Harris
Telephone (08) 9575-2211 Fax (08) 9575-2121 Email wharris@ginginwa.iinet.net.au
National Rural Award for Innovation
Kingaroy Shire Council, Queensland
Kingaroy and South Burnett Medical
Workforce Strategy
Of major concern to rural communities and health authorities alike is the recruitment and retention of health care professionals and the issue of hospital closures. The Kingaroy and South Burnett Medical Workforce Strategy is the Kingaroy Shire Council’s response to the shortage of general practitioners and specialists and to declining hospital services. These difficulties, experienced in rural communities all over Australia, have been addressed by the Kingaroy Shire Council through the development of a comprehensive and successful series of measures. This project is innovative in its use of a holistic approach to overcome general practice and specialist shortages and in its development in collaboration with a wide range of key stakeholders, including the community. The planning model has been meticulously documented, with the whole model transferable to other Local Government bodies and rural health services.
Contact Mr Ron Turner
Telephone (07) 4162-6204 Fax (07) 4162-4806
Email Rturner@kingaroy.qld.gov.au
National Award for Excellence
Tumut Shire Council, New South Wales
Development of a Paper Mill in Tumut Shire
Tumut Shire Council was proactive in initiating and facilitating a significant paper mill development in its shire. Tumut’s consultation strategy was, simply, excellent, and their community consultation process proved vital to the mill’s acceptance. Council played a key role in ensuring effective community consultation: it raised the initiative with the community to confirm its interest in attracting a pulp mill and then ensured that such a development would be of a high standard. In a series of community workshops, and with the development of significant partnerships between government and industry, Tumut Shire Council contributed to local value adding in the forest industry sector. Along with the Commonwealth and State Governments, the Council contributed to roads funding and water infrastructure to support the development. The project has also assisted in the arrest of population decline in the shire, with recent reports showing a 2.5 per cent increase. The mill has also brought considerable economic activity and prosperity to the shire, with an expected 1,080 jobs when the mill is fully operational.
Contact Mr Chris Adams
Telephone (02) 6947-0519 Fax (02) 6947-3999
Email cadams@tumut.nsw.gov.au
National Rural Award for Excellence
Town of Port Hedland, Western Australia
Courthouse Arts Centre and Gallery
The aim of the Town of Port Hedland’s Courthouse Art Centre and Gallery initiative was to promote Indigenous culture positively, to foster positive cultural exchanges, and to find creative solutions to Indigenous unemployment.
The initiative is an excellent example of a productive partnership between the Town of Port Hedland Council, the Hedland Arts Council and the Pilbara Arts Craft and Design Aboriginal Corporation.
It is also an excellent example of practical reconciliation and has produced excellent outcomes by increasing Indigenous employment and raising the esteem of a large number of people in the community through pride in their artists and crafts people. The project has contributed to the town’s economic development and, with growing interest and support from the local business sector, it has the potential to continue to increase economic and social opportunities for the people of Port Hedland.
Contact Ms Michelle Mackenzie
Telephone (08) 9158-9338 Fax (08) 9173-1766
Email mackenziem@porthedland.wa.gov.au
Special Award to celebrate the Year of the Outback
Cox Peninsula Community Government Council,
Northern Territory
Electronic Water Card Delivery System
The Cox Peninsular Community Government Council’s Electronic Water Card Delivery System won a Commendation in the Engineering, Infrastructure, Planning and Urban Design Category and attracted the attention of the National Judging panel. The Electronic Water Card Delivery System is a very good example of how a public-private partnership can produce an innovative solution regardless of the issue, or of the size or location of the community. The system has wide application and is indicative of the resourcefulness and ingenuity of communities in the Australian outback.In the Year of the Outback and at a time when the Australian countryside is being ravaged by drought, the tenacity of a small rural Council in finding an innovative solution to water distribution in their harsh environment was thought worthy of special mention and of the presentation of a Special Award to celebrate the Year of the Outback.
Contact Mr Graham Watson
Telephone (08) 9878-5185 Fax (08) 9878-5100
Email coxcouncil@bigpond.com
