In each edition we feature the views of a Local Government Association president. The following is from Alderman Kerry Moir, President of the Local Government Association of Northern Territory.
A large amount of my time has recently been spent on trying to find a resolution that could see some 500 jobs saved in Local Government in the Northern Territory.
The issue would not be new to many in Local Government and is centred around funding from other spheres of government.
The offer of funding is made and is accepted, runs for many years and then is terminated.
It is one part of federalism we never seem to get right and we probably will not get it right until we sort out responsibilities, funding, taxation and constitutional issues.
I honestly think that the Australian Local Government Association’s directions on constitutional reform are the way to go and will do much to advance some of the obstacles surrounding all of the above issues if we can win a referendum.
We have shown how successful Roads to Recovery funding has been and further direct funding on things like infrastructure projects would be a wonderful advance for our sector.
I also think we have to keep slogging away with the Intergovernmental Agreement to gain some ascendancy over the way other spheres of government treat Local Government. Everyone talks collaboration but how often do we see it practised?
Responsibilities among governments are still blurred and the better we get at performing functions the more we seemed to be asked to take on. We join in with funding programs (sometimes at our peril) as other governments change their policies, but some things, like financial assistance grants, which are in need of an overhaul, do not change at all.
The Federal Government, of course, remains in the box seat with its revenue powers and I often wonder where Local Government will be if ever that sphere of government were to greatly expand its workforce.
What impact, for example, will the takeover of public hospitals have? Local Government is, after all, something of a competitor among governments for taxation revenue and, to my mind the larger the other two spheres become the less likelihood Local Government has of gaining a fair share of that revenue, which is very much our problem.
I know we talk about it a lot (because it has such profound impacts on our operations) and this has helped create a stereotype about Local Government among representatives of the other two spheres; that we are forever carping about funding.
However, our circumstances are such it is hard to get away from and particularly when another sphere decides to withdraw funding after having provided it for many years.
I am in awe, at times, of the amounts of funds that can be applied by other spheres of government in looking at a problem before anything is done about it.
I find it somewhat hard to accept that funds can always be found for such purposes and yet it is often so difficult to fund a critical piece of infrastructure or a vital program.
Where would we have been had we not had a global financial crisis? After this financial year how will we go getting an ongoing infrastructure program?
Bring on the referendum! Communities need the change.
