The lead articles in this edition leave no doubt that a Federal election is not that far away. The recent Saturday sitting of the House of Representatives, to tidy up left over legislation prior to Parliament commencing its winter recess, provided the Prime Minister with the option of going to the polls as early as 7 August.
For Local Governments around the nation, whether the impending election results in a change of government or a fourth term for the Coalition Government, the next three years are going to be very interesting. If the Coalition is returned, many believe John Howard will not see out the full term, thereby making way for Peter Costello waiting patiently in the wings. This could bring a substantial change of style and direction to highest office in the land, particularly in regard to the Republic debate and possibly some social justice issues.
Should Labor be successful and Mark Latham becomes Prime Minister, similar to what has happened in recent years as State and Territory Governments, as one after the other, changed from Conservative to Labor Governments, it is unlikely that there will be extensive and sudden new policy directions. A ‘steady as she goes approach’ would be expected for at least a year or two.
A Latham Government approach to intergovernmental relations will be the area of great interest to Local Government. This would be the same under a Costello Government. Certainly the groundwork for an overhaul of roles and functions of our spheres of government, together with a long overdue review of financial arrangements, is undoubtedly a major achievement of the current Government. But driving the bipartisan support for change clearly set out in the Hawker Report to the next level will be a major challenge for which ever side of politics forms the next Federal Government.
In early June, the Federal Minister, Senator Ian Campbell, convened a roundtable to look at the Hawker recommendations. This brought together State and Territory Local Government Ministers and Australian Local Government Association (ALGA).
The ALGA came away from the roundtable very encouraged. It believes that the Federal Government is demonstrating a preparedness to seriously address the issues and that it will not merely fiddle around the edges.
ALGA President, Councillor Mike Montgomery, said that it was clear from the roundtable that participants came together with a willingness to get on with the job, but at the same time recognising it will be a long haul.
He said the main thing is that everyone is now talking, and he believes that the results of this initial roundtable were better than some anticipated.
Mike Montgomery said each State/Territory and their Local Governments need to sit down and sort out their relations as to how best they can meet the needs of their joint constituents. He suggests they look at what is already working well in other States and to build on this. He urges them to look at the South Australian model and the fact that the SA Local Government Minister, Rory McEwen, is currently working on setting up a tripartite pilot to look at better ways to address service delivery and funding issues.
