Some 250 delegates from Councils around the nation attended the Local Government Community Services Association of Australia’s conference in Melbourne on 25–28 October. Held biennially, this national conference brings together Local Government professionals working across the gambit of the many services impacting directly on people’s lives and wellbeing.
A range of keynote speakers and conference sessions addressed the premise that in a preferred society citizens will be active and communities will participate in improving their quality of life for the common good.
“Happiness and wellbeing cannot be driven by the economy alone,” said President of Local Government Community Services Association of Australia, Jenny Merkus.
She said that social, cultural and environmental aspects of our lives are just as important and that we should be using the term Gross National Happiness rather than Gross National Product.
“Although GDP is dominant, it is a far too narrow measure.” Jenny Merkus asked the question: how well are we really doing after the current period of economic growth?
“The benefits have not been equitable,” she said. “We have both structural and localised disadvantage, and if this is not addressed the whole community will pay for this in the end. “Participatory local democracy is the key to building just communities. People who are active and participate in their communities report a higher wellbeing. This conference aims to challenge delegates to think creatively about how we can promote just communities by strengthening and confirming community engagement and empowerment.”
President of the Australian Local Government Association, Councillor Paul Bell, told delegates that with many people losing close, trusting relationships; of not knowing their next door neighbour’s name; of kids not playing in parks; and older people locked in their homes out of a perceived fear, the need for local identity, affinity and sense of belonging is more vital than ever before.
“Re-engaging with local communities is the very essence of Local Government but in many respects Local Government still remains undervalued, under funded and overlooked by our other spheres of government,” Councillor Bell said.
Writer, educator and human rights advocate, Arnold Zable, spoke on our treatment of refugees and detainees. He said that Australia is a nation of immigrants – a nation of boat people joining with an ancient culture of our Indigenous people. He described this as “ a symphony of stories, a new world meeting with an ancient past”.
“The specific is the universal,” Arnold Zable said. “At the heart of it we are all human beings. “We are all on a common journey, from the Irish, with their green lips from eating grass, who came here in the mid 19th century to escape the ravages of the potato blight to the latest boat people, they are all economic refugees.”
And he warned, “with just one shift in the wind you and I can quite easily become the stranger.”
