Following amalgamations involving
the majority of Queensland councils and elections for all councils in March this year, the President of the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ), Councillor Paul Bell, welcomed a large number of first time attendees to the Association’s 112th Annual Conference.
Councillor Bell said that with nine new members on LGAQ’s 14 member Executive, this has also been the biggest turnover of a generation.
Hosted by Cairns Regional Council, the conference was staged from 1 to 4 September.
“Our conference theme is ‘Challenges and Choices’ – the challenges are those facing us as Councillors, as councils and as a sphere of government,” Paul Bell said. “The range of choices we can make will be elaborated on during the conference, and to assist in this process we have drawn together a range of expert speakers from overseas and outside the government sector.”
In his frank post amalgamation analysis, Councillor Bell said that amalgamations have “been and gone”.
“We all have to get on with it, like it or lump it,” he said.
Councillor Bell told delegates that he and the LGAQ Executive accept that Premier Anna Bligh and her Cabinet have the right to govern Queensland but, equally, LGAQ has the responsibility to protect and promote its membership, the Local Governments in the State.
He called for a ‘genuine’ partnership with the State Government ‘not one way traffic or consultation after the fact’.
“The next six to 12 months will tell us if this is a false dawn or the start of better relations,” Paul Bell said.
He said with eight councils currently on a financial ‘watch list’ and revenue across the whole sector growing just a fraction above the CPI alongside cost structures increasing at an alarming rate, amalgamations “have not and will not close this gap”.
“More, much more needs to be done, and sooner rather than later,” he said. “The State Government is now interested in our patch and is doing what it should have done for decades – thinking about the system of Local Government and its effectiveness and performance.”
Calling for a good, commonsense working relationship with the State Government, Councillor Bell said that “after a rocky period LGAQ has now been invited back to the table and not a minute too soon!”
In officially opening the conference, the Minister for Main Roads and Local Government, Warren Pitt, said ‘challenges and choices’ are paramount to everyone who holds public office. He described this as a dynamic time for Local Government in Queensland with the greatest reforms taking place in its 150 year history.
The Minister said that with Queensland experiencing the highest growth of any State for the 13th consecutive year, benefiting from these opportunities while maintaining the State’s great lifestyle demands a regional approach to doing business to ensure that councils remain strong and sustainable into the future. To manage this growth and deliver effective services and infrastructure, the Minister said that the next step in the reform process is a review of the Local Government Act.
“This will define the way Local Government provides services to communities for the next century,” Warren Pitt said.
He said that through standardised reporting, a council’s accountability and transparency will be to its ratepayers rather than the State Government.
“This will enable people to compare councils and evaluate performances,” the Minister said. “It will not mean every council out for itself, rather provide a comparison of like councils with like.”
He said the legislative framework and policy reform now being embarked upon will remove excessive State control and reporting by delivering greater accountability back to residents and ratepayers.
LGAQ President, Councillor Paul Bell, has warned that the Government’s proposal to introduce league tables of council performances must recognise the diversity of Local Government regions throughout Queensland.
Also speaking at the conference, Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg proposed a ‘Partners in Government’ agreement between State and Local Governments to help rebuild relationships between the two sectors.
Councillor Bell said that the promise by the Liberal National Party (LNP) to ‘double entrench’ Local Government in the Queensland Constitution would make it much more difficult for State Governments to change the status and fundamental role of Local Government.
He also welcomed the LNP’s promise to restore the corporate status of Queensland councils.
Councillor Bell said the State Government revoked this status last year to remove councils from coverage under the Howard Government’s Work Choices legislation. This had led to doubts about councils’ ability to engage with the Federal Government.
