Councillor Genia McCaffery has been elected unopposed as the new President of the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) following the Association’s annual general meeting in Canberra on 11 November.
President of the Local Government Association of South Australia, Mayor Felicity-ann Lewis, and President of the Western Australian Local Government Association, Mayor Troy Pickard, will take on the shared Vice President positions.
Councillor McCaffery has been Mayor of North Sydney Council since 1995, is Immediate Past President of the Local Government Association of New South Wales, and has been a Director of ALGA since June 2006. She has a Bachelor of Economics degree with Honours in Government from the University of Sydney and has worked in the areas of research, youth, unemployment and public advocacy.
Councillor McCaffery said that it is an exciting time to be heading the national body, which represents Australia’s 565 councils.
“The desire to make a difference is what attracted me to Local Government and I am particularly honoured to be President in this the year of Women in Local Government – a time when women are being encouraged to consider careers in Local Government and represent their communities in public office,” she said. “Along with the ongoing work on Constitutional recognition and infrastructure funding, I hope to address planning and natural resources management during my time as President.”
Councillor McCaffery also paid tribute to former President, Councillor Geoff Lake.
“He has been an energetic and hard working advocate for Local Government and in his two years achieved much for Australia’s communities,” she said.
She outlined ALGA’s main priorities for the coming year:
- advancing the case for increased funding for
Local Government through seeking a
Parliamentary Inquiry into Local Government
funding, which will lay bare the facts on how
under resourced councils are - using the Local Roads Funding Gap Study to
argue for a permanent Roads to Recovery
funding program - renewing and replacing much needed
community infrastructure in partnership with
the Australian Government - moving to the next stage in the campaign for
a referendum to include Local Government in
the Australian Constitution - seeking to strengthen the 2006 Cost Shifting
Inter-Governmental Agreement, which is due
for review in 2011 - making sure the interests of local communities
through their Local Governments are
addressed in any population inquiry –
whether undertaken through expert panels or
by the Productivity Commission or some
other mechanism - continuing to protect the role of councils and
community consultation in planning - keeping Local Government interests at the
forefront of climate change policy – in particular
by arguing hard for a national approach to
address the legal uncertainty facing councils
through climate and sea level changes.
