A statement from the Minister for Infrastructure and Local Government, Anthony Albanese.
The Rudd Labor Government is committed to engaging in a new nation building partnership with Local Government.
Local Government is often the closest level of government to our communities and plays an important role in making those communities work.
Australia’s councils and shires are responsible for $22.1 billion in expenditure on infrastructure and services, including local roads, community infrastructure and environmental services. For example, councils maintain around 657,000 kilometres of roads across Australia – long enough to circumnavigate the Earth around 16 times.
In providing these services, councils employed more than 168,000 people in 2006–07, a crucial source of employment particularly in regional and rural communities.
Indeed, Local Government is involved in some of the most important occasions in our lives, such as birthdays and marriages in local town halls or parks, local citizenship ceremonies, approving extensions and improvements to our homes and taking care of our children in council run child care centres.
Local Government is part of the fabric of local communities. That is why Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is determined to engage Local Government in our nation building agenda. That is why the Rudd Government has invited mayors and shire presidents from councils around Australia to attend the inaugural meeting of the Australian Council of Local Government at Parliament House on November 18. I would encourage all councils to attend this unprecedented gathering of Federal and Local Government – the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, mayors, shire presidents and Local Government stakeholders talking directly about matters of significance.
Of course, Local and Federal Governments may not agree on every issue, just as Local Governments often do not agree with each other. However, what we do have for the first time in a long time is a Federal Government that is willing to listen to Local Government and prepared to work together with them to improve our local communities.
Some of the issues that I expect this one day meeting to address include building national and local infrastructure to boost our economic capacity and improve our quality of life; tackling immediate challenges facing major cities and growth corridors, and taking steps towards Constitutional recognition for Local Government.
In a short time since the election of the Rudd Government last year, we have shown our commitment to engaging
with Local Government on a number of issues.
This includes:
- committing to establish a new regional and local community infrastructure program from next year to invest in local communities
- securing the Roads to Recovery program until 2014 and increasing its funding by $250 million
- establishing a $512 million Housing Affordability Fund to target the planning and infrastructure costs that are incurred by developers of new housing developments. Local Governments will be the primary partner in this initiative because of their critical role in infrastructure and planning around the country
- delivering a record amount in financial assistance grants to local councils – nearly $1.9 billion, which is an increase of more than $125 million over the 2007–08 financial year.
The Rudd Government intends to keep building on our relationship with Local Government and I look forward to sharing ideas
and talking with mayors and shire presidents around Australia.
