In each edition we feature the views of a Local Government Association President. The following is from Councillor Phyllis Miller, President of the New South Wales Shires Association.
New South Wales is the last State in Australia where Local Government faces the challenge of determining whether two representative bodies unite into one overall association. As a Municipal Association, the Local Government Association (LGA) began in 1883, and the Shires Association (SA) in 1907, a year after NSW created Shires as legal entities. They have shared a common secretariat since 1922. The SA has 79 members, compared with LGA’s 73, but the latter in population terms outnumber their rural counterparts by a factor of better than five to one.
Former LGA President, Peter Woods, and SA President, John Wearne, acted as consultants who started with a blank sheet of paper to draw up recommendations for a merger. A discussion paper they produced is now being analysed during February at the Shire divisional meetings. The LGA will give its views prior to their annual conference next October.
I believe, for what it is worth, that we should move forward and form one association. In the last two years, Western Australia has rolled three associations into one. And its president, Bill Mitchell, comes from the smallest council in Australia with about 300 people.
But we will not unite at the expense of strong rural and regional country representation.
Since 1 January, NSW has come under a mandatory Code of Conduct in respect to Councillors which replaces an optional code that has been in place since the upgrading of the Local Government Act in 1993. Our Associations generally agree with the Code, and in fact played a major role in its formulation. It provides an opportunity for the Local Government Minister to “sin bin” individual councillors for up to six months, and strengthens the constraints that properly should separate councillors and staff from development applicants.
But we not so happy in NSW with the State Government’s intentions to regulate councillor expenses through the Local Government Remuneration Tribunal. Federal and State MPs have certain partner rights, such as accommodation and travel, which have since December been denied NSW councillors.
If MPs don’t want to be hypocritical, they should allow the Parliamentary Remuneration Tribunal in our State to determine expenses for us as well as them, as occurs in New Zealand. We will shortly hold talks with the Minister on this question.
While discussing codes, Manly Council at the LGA conference last October moved for each council in the Association to adopt a charter of political reform which imposes stringent separation of councillors and developers, especially developer donations. This month, we established a nine member working party from both Associations which will work on recommendations to take back to our executives in April. We stand for transparency and openness.
Early March will also see high level talks by our Associations with Local Government officials and the State Electoral Office to try and get some fairness and balance restored concerning the heavy costs of elections. A number of our new Councils face elections in March.
