This year was the first National General Assembly this journalist has attended, and I was overwhelmed by the excitement and enthusiasm that I witnessed.
Throughout the main hall networking and business discussions seemed to be occurring at every opportunity.
The panel sessions were also filled with attentive delegates, no doubt taking fantastic ideas back to their respective councils and communities.
The source of the buzz may have been the federal budget.
Perhaps the federal white paper also played a part, and possibly the then pending William decision in the high court was also at the back of everyone’s minds.
All delegates had a string of commonality connecting them, and likely were all facing similar budget challenges at their home councils on varying scales.
The pressure of a dwindling funding supply is not an individual problem for local councils or shires.
It’s not even a state problem, although some have been hit harder than others.
With everyone tackling the same challenges, everyone has to innovate to find new ways of stretching the current budget.
The National General Assembly provided the perfect forum for delegates to get together and work out solutions as a whole level of government.
It felt like everyone was in attendance for the same reason.
Although the future will prove challenging, the overall mood was enthusiastic, which was an encouraging sign that local government would be able to face the uncertain future ahead of it.
Far more encouraging than if the mood was bitter and downtrodden, which one might expect given the challenges ahead.
It was local government ‘Getting Down to Business’, as all the signage proclaimed.
Over 800 Delegates voted yes to petition the Federal Government to restore Financial Assistance Grants to their original model.
The future looks promising if local government continues to tackle its challenges as a unit.
