A record 530 delegates attended this year’s Local Government Association of New South Wales Conference in Tamworth to tackle the theme, ‘Tough Times, Smart Solutions’.
In recognising that the global financial crisis is coming to an end, President of the Local Government Association of New South Wales, Councillor Genia McCaffery, said every cloud has a silver lining.
“This year, ours was the Federal Government’s infrastructure programs,” she said. “These have helped many councils to weather the storm and have provided much needed public infrastructure across New South Wales.
“Through our membership of the Australian Local Government Association, we will be asking the Federal Government to make these programs permanent and more far reaching.
“We will also be asking for a fairer distribution model so that all communities benefit.
“Local Government has a significant infrastructure backlog and we will never catch up without ongoing and substantial funding from the Federal Government.”
Councillor McCaffery said that while the infrastructure backlog has been topical for a few years, rate pegging has been an issue for much longer.
She was pleased to report that that there has finally been some movement on this front, with the recent IPART (Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal) draft report stating that councils and their communities should be permitted to work together to determine their own financial future.
“While we will continue to fight for the unconditional removal of rate pegging, the options proposed in the draft IPART report provide a welcome first step for our financial survival,” Councillor McCaffery said.
She said Local Government in New South Wales must also be modernised – not through amalgamations, but by strengthening and building its resilience so that councils can provide effective, relevant, democratic government for their communities.
“Local Government is suffering from the impact of cost shifting – we need to take control of this and we need to take it in hand now,” Councillor McCaffery said.
“As your President, I feel responsible for ensuring we have this discussion before a reform process is imposed from the confines of Macquarie Street.”
In her address to the conference, New South Wales Minister for Local Government Barbara Perry said councils need to make improvements in the area of governance.
She outlined four cornerstones to this: further training for councillors; community engagement; council collaboration through skills and resource sharing; and representative democracy.
She said diversity of representation is one of the things she values most about Local Government.
“In my view, the demography of a community should be broadly reflected in its local council at both the elected level and the workforce level,” the Minister said.
“Our task is to remove any barriers that discourage people, while at the same time getting the message across that Local Government has many rewards.”
She said she expects to see a future with more women, Indigenous Australians and people from culturally diverse backgrounds in councils.
“Promoting diversity, especially in leadership positions, will provide local representation, improved communication and better understanding of issues affecting local communities,” she said.
“Simply put, it makes really good business sense.
“However, if Local Government is serious about welcoming a wider range of community into its ranks, it must stand out from the crowd and provide the support that will encourage a more diverse range of people to take up the positions and stick to them.”
Barbara Perry said that underpinning the four foundations of good governance is the need for a fundamental shift in the culture of thinking and the way of doing business in Local Government.
“It’s about looking for and embracing new alternative ways to deliver services,” she said.
“The responsibility of creating an innovative culture rests with you as leaders and the way in which you choose to build on and shape the foundations of good governance to best suit your local needs.
“You need to look at what opportunities there are, have a conversation together and draw on the great experience and knowledge that you all have.”
Keynote speaker former NSW Premier Bob Carr said that with Australia’s population expected to increase by 65 per cent by 2050, rather than 33 per cent as widely thought, we will see a future focused on intensive development, especially in large growth corridors.
“Regional and subregional centres will become even more important,” he said. “They will have to take on further growth and development, but this must be subject to good planning and design, which will be a challenge because the growth rate is higher than State and Local Government have contemplated.”
Bob Carr identified preventative health as another issue for future Local Governments.
With 46,000 Australians dying from cardiovascular disease every year, he said more needs to be done to address obesity.
“Some New South Wales councils, such as Kogarah and Gosford, have used local laws to ban artificial transfats (hydrogenated versions of saturated fats) in fast food outlets,” he said.
“Other councils, such as Waverley, Strathfield, Gloucester Shire and Bega Shire are working with food businesses to transfer to healthier cooking products.
“This is a good start, but we could look further, such as to adopt New South Wales school canteen healthy eating guidelines, and running campaigns to educate local shops of healthier alternative fats.
“We have seen through antismoking laws how local laws can work well to curb unhealthy patterns, and councils must continue to push the anvil in this way to create smart solutions for similar issues.”
