In his address at the 12th National General Assembly, President of the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA), Councillor Paul Bell, said that after more than 50 years of pursuing fair Federal funding, there is a need for a new campaign. He called on delegates to join a rally to support ALGA’s campaign to achieve three key objectives: fair funding, fair treatment and formal recognition.
“We need fair Federal funding to replace the archaic system of financial assistance grants, grants that fail to provide real growth that will help us meet the demands and expectations of the 21st century communities,” Councillor Bell said.
“We need fair treatment by our State and Federal counterparts that will rule out cost shifting once and for all. And we need formal recognition to cement our place as a valued and equal player within the Australian federation. Recognition that will give us protection from unfair and arbitrary interference.” The Federal Government’s response to David Hawker’s Fair Share Report, handed down in June, committed the Howard Government to a limited, but significant range of activities with the following components.
- It will press ahead with an intergovernmental agreement on cost shifting.
- It will commission a Productivity Commission study on barriers to Local Government revenue.
- It will move a motion to formally recognise the role of Local Government in both houses of Federal Parliament.
- It will conduct a review of interstate distribution of the identified roads component of Financial Assistance Grants.
“This response may not be all we want,” Paul Bell said. “It may not come as fast as we want. But it does represent movement in a forward direction.”
He said that we should recognise the gains that Local Government has made in the past 12 months. “In the May Budget, the Government made good on all of the key election commitments made to Local Government last year,” he said.
“Roads to Recovery will be delivered in full, with another $1.2 billion for local roads over the next four years. There’s now additional funding for the regional roads component through $150 million in extra funding, the Black Spot program has been extended by another $90 million and we have secured access to the $2 billion Australian Water Fund.”
He said that ALGA had fought hard for this result and the Australian Government has delivered. “We look to the Australian Government to further engage Councils through an expansion of special purpose funding programs,” he said. “We have, for example, just lodged a final submission with the Commonwealth that outlines our Better Rural Services plan.
“This calls for substantial new funds – $275 million in total, to assist Councils in regional areas improve service delivery through the use of information and communication technology. This is an investment in rural communications infrastructure that we hope will be the Roads to Recovery for the information age, helping communities to smash through the digital divide and access the benefits of 21st century technology.”
He said that while Local Government is grateful for the $2 billion a year it receives in assistance, the case for fair funding concerns Financial Assistance Grants.
“These grants, accounting for $1.6 billion a year, are effectively capped,” he said. “The annual increase is calculated using a formula based on CPI increases and population change. In other words there is no real growth. And there is no real growth when you compare CPI with the increasing costs faced by Councils. The cost of road maintenance alone far exceeds CPI, as do staff and fleet costs.” He said it is important for Local Government to get high quality, nationally consistent data that will underpin a comprehensive and watertight case to the Commonwealth.
“At the same time, we must have a grass roots campaign that will build understanding and support among the community, among non government organisations and most importantly, among federal MPs and Senators,” he said. “Over the next 12 to 18 months we must convert them to our cause. They, more than anyone else, hold the key to our success.
“Local Government is on something of a long march. A march that will ultimately take us from a tier of government that is under funded and under valued to a sphere of government that is an equal and valued partner playing its full and legitimate role within the Australian Federation.
“I invite you all to join ALGA on this campaign. A campaign that’s not about sustaining Local Government as such, it’s about sustaining our communities.
“At the end of the day, Local Government is all about people. We build and sustain communities – and we do it damn well. All we now ask, is for the means to get on with the job.”
