At the recent Northern Territory Local Government Association (LGANT) annual general meeting (AGM) I was re-elected President for a third term.
The Vice President Municipal is City of Darwin Alderman, Gary Haslett, and Vice President Regional And Shire, is Tiwi Island Regional Council Mayor, Garwin Tipiloura.
Other members who make up the executive are Katherine Town Council, Mayor Fay Miller; Barkly Regional Council Mayor, Steven Edgington; Central Desert Regional Councillor Robert George; East Arnhem Regional Councillor, Bobby Wunungmurra; City of Darwin Alderman, Peter Pangquee; and Litchfield Council Mayor, Maree Bredhauer.
Mayor Tipiloura takes up a role on the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) Board as the second Northern Territory representative and was quickly inducted and represented LGANT at the recent ALGA National Local Roads And Transport Congress, and AGM held in Alice Springs.
The new LGANT Board’s membership is widely spread across 1,349,129 sq km which ensures board meetings have to be phone hookups due to the high cost of transportation across the remote parts of the Northern Territory.
To build better governance throughout our sector and with financial assistance from the Northern Territory Government we have conducted three Australian Institute of Company Director (AICD) two day courses during 2018.
Over 50 percent of our Local Government elected members have taken part with the next course to be held in Katherine in early 2019.
These instructive courses have been delivered by Lindsay Holmes FAICD, and Henry Botha FAICD.
The AICD course provides the essentials to our members which includes:
1. The role of council and the councillor – how councils do their job, ‘corporate governance’, council governance relationships, council governance roles, councillors’ duties and responsibilities, rights of councillors.
2. Leadership – the leadership role of the mayor, of the councillor, and of the chief executive officer, the difference between executive and elected representatives, leadership inside the council chamber, leadership outside the council chamber, leadership work of councillors – process, using evaluation to build leadership skills, five leadership myths, aspects of leadership,
development options.
3. Finance for directors – the financial statements of an organisation, how an organisation meets its statutory obligations in relation to reporting its financial performance, the importance of good cash management, directors’ duties with regard to financial statements and systems, interpreting financial performance using trends and ratios, solvency issues, the board’s role in setting budgets and monitoring performance against them, using key performance indicators to monitor business
performance.
Across the Northern Territory we have many different local government areas from the capital, Darwin, to very remote communities in the Central Desert but we have many common issues and we need to progress as a sector.
We all want financial stability, upfront infrastructure provisions and the funding to match, improved policies on waste and recycling and to be an equal partner with both the Northern Territory and Federal Government.
