The Western Australia Local Government Association (WALGA) held its annual Local Government Week Convention in Perth from 6–9 August 2005.
This year’s theme was ‘Local Government CSI’ standing for:
- Community – our towns, our suburbs, our neighbourhood, our people.
- Sustainability – achieving social, economic and environmental balance
- Initiators – harnessing the catalysts for sustained development.
Western Australian Premier, Geoff Gallop, told delegates that forums such as this gave the opportunity for creativity; an outstanding feature of Western Australia. He said that we need to think about tomorrow when making decisions today, and need to engage the young early in the process of politics.
Keynote speaker Robert Putnam, Harvard Professor of Public Policy and commentator on social changes and the effects on communities, said while there were real and measurable benefits generated by Council mergers, including economies of scale, there are also social costs. His extensive research into ‘social capital’ in the United States had revealed that the most successful civic institutions are those that had close connections to their community.
He said the City of Portland had dramatically decentralised its system of Local Government with resulting sharp increases in civic participation.
“There are downsides to decentralisation but in general smaller is better,” Professor Putnam said.
He said that social capital is a real and measurable phenomenon, adding that the best predictor of a low crime rate is the number of people in a neighbourhood who know each other’s first name. He stated that there had been a steady decline in social capital in the United States and he suspected the same is true in other western countries Dr Fiona Wood, Australian of the Year, spoke engagingly of her post Bali experiences and how suffering proved a great motivator for an improved outcome. She spoke of the capability of human spirit and how partnerships which are truly two way can expand you as an individual. Dr Wood acknowledged that the young are an enormous resource on whom we will increasingly rely and education is a privilege only limited by our own imagination.
