This is the fifth in a series of articles by Ron Exiner* looking at approaches Local Government can take to cement its place as a vital sphere of government for communities as well as an equal partner in our Federation.
It is an important time for Local Government. It has recently hit the headlines for the right reasons with the recent meeting of mayors with the Prime Minister. The funding that emerged from that meeting is very welcome, but highlights the difficulty of Local Government being sufficiently sustainable to maintain its infrastructure.
There may not be windfalls every year, although the needs are ongoing.
Funding to Local Government as part of the Federal Government’s economic security package shows a recognition of one of the important roles of Local Government in maintaining infrastructure. The Federal Government’s proposed consideration of Constitutional recognition is another highlight of the importance of Local Government in the national governance structure.
However, not all the recent media coverage of Local Government has been so positive.
New South Wales and Victoria have had elections recently. This article largely considers issues based on the Victorian experience, but these issues apply nationally.
NSW elections occurred in the shadow of the woes of the State Government and Wollongong Council.
Victoria’s pre-election coverage has featured a series of articles in the Age. The tenor of these articles can be summarised by the Saturday
22 November 2008 headline ‘Too old, dull and tainted’.These articles question the future sustainability of Local Government by implying that it is riddled with conflict of interest (tainted), losing its powers to the State Government (dull) and failing to attract young, diverse and talented candidates (old).
A focus of these articles has been on problems around conflict of interest. That is, when a councillor’s private and public interests conflict. While the councils mentioned represent only a small handful of Victoria’s 79 councils, one should not be really surprised that conflict of interest is an issue in Local Government.
Councillors are necessarily embedded in the community, partly because of their part time status. They are undertaking their councillor duties and also holding down a job, running a business and usually involved with community groups. Or their family members are. In these circumstances, the meeting of public interests and private interests is going to happen.
Some councillors and officers probably exploit their positions in their private interests. At other times, interests may come into contact more innocently and councillors must manage their way through this.
In Victoria at least, the onus is on councillors to recognise their own conflicts of interest and taking appropriate action. Until recently at least, the State Government actively discouraged officers from giving advice to councillors about individual conflicts of interest. It insisted that the responsibility was on councillors.
Less than ten per cent of councils were mentioned in the articles in the Age and yet the whole sector is condemned. Focusing exclusively on the alleged actions of very few and ignoring the vast majority gives a false impression of a tainted sector.
The Victorian Government has just legislated to make conflict of interest clearer. Councillors should be supported and advised in dealing with potential conflicts of interest, while the seeming few more malicious cases are rooted out.
Perhaps more importantly, the Age articles focus on the loss of important powers to the State and the difficulties in attracting and retaining talent in the sector. The candidate list for the Victorian elections showed smaller numbers standing and a reduction in the numbers of women and young people.
A previous article in this series addressed issues around adequate councillor remuneration. There have been recent minor improvements to remuneration in Victoria, which even the Age regards as inadequate. Some more analysis along these lines by the Age would have cast more light on the situation.
Just to attribute reduced number and diversity of candidates to some general malaise in the sector is superficial and inadequate to understand what is really happening. It will be interesting to observe the impact of proper salaries in Queensland on the quality of local governance.
It was also stated that personal abuse between councillors is a problem impacting on local government’s future. Personal abuse is a governance problem. It does not arise because councillors as a group are ruder or less disciplined than the population at large or in fact anyone who has a stressful and important job. While there are always individuals who behave badly, behaviour problems are due more to a lack of understanding of the Local Government system and frustrations experienced by individual councillors in getting things done
Local Government is a complex system. It is not like State or Federal Government. There are no governments and oppositions, ministers with executive powers and speakers to manage the parliament.
The Westminster system that operates in State and Federal parliaments actually creates a context in which bad behaviour by individuals does not threaten the system.
The party system allows parliamentarians to abuse each other across the floor. Ridiculing the ‘other side’ leads to perceptions of parliamentary mastery and strength. There are routine expressions of concern at the declining standards of
parliamentary behaviour, but there are no incentives or real desire to make any positive changes.
These behaviours, however deplorable, don’t threaten Federal or State governance structures. However, in Local Government they do.
There are no structures or systems that contain frustration and bad behaviour. Management of the parliament by a purportedly independent authority (the Speaker), party disciplines, threats of losing pre-selection and threats to career advancement are all absent in the Local Government model.
The lack of containment means that bad behaviour can lead to governance breakdown. Good governance at a Local Government level depends on the goodwill of councillors. Being effective as a councillor depends on the capacity of the councillor to cooperate with his or her colleagues.
The State Government and the Local Government sector need to do much more to support good governance in Local Government. The State’s focus has been in councillor behaviour and Victoria is in the process of instituting a tribunal system to consider cases of alleged bad behaviour and breaches of the Councillors’ Code of Conduct.
While this may be an important part of a process of improving behaviour, it represents an overemphasis on the behaviour itself. There should be a far greater emphasis on council administrations, Local Government Associations and the State Governments to act to support good governance.
There needs to be a greater understanding among participants and observers about how the Local Government sector works and how the elected level can be supported in undertaking their important, difficult and complex tasks.
And some more balanced and thoughtful reporting would also help.
*Ron Exiner has held senior management positions in corporate, executive and financial services in various Victorian councils, spanning more than 20 years. As Director of Exintel Pty Ltd, a consultancy focusing on governance, strategic planning and policy development, he prepared the Good Governance Guide (2004) for the Good Governance Advisory Group (Victorian Government, Municipal Association of Victoria and Victorian Local Governance Association), and Excellence in Governance for Local Government (2005) for CPA Australia.
