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Councils highlight community infrastructure needs

Local Roads

More than 70 councils around Australia have responded to ALGA's request to identify failing community infrastructure. The close to 400 proposals already submitted by councils to the Community Infrastructure Ideas Register reinforce the view that much of the community's infrastructure is in need of renewal.

Take the example of Chittering Shire Council's Bindoon Hall, which is the only community facility in the Shire. The Hall is almost 70 years old and as with many similar properties around the country includes asbestos in its primary building materials. The foundations are rotting, the ceiling is sagging and the roof has deteriorated. If it is to continue as the Shire's only venue for community events, the hall needs work that will cost between $200,000 and $400,000.

Failing community infrastructure is a national problem with a backlog in renewal work of $14.5 billion according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Report into Local Government financial sustainability. The Report recommended a Local Community Infrastructure Renewal Fund of $250m a year over four years. ALGA will continue to press the case for such a fund with both major political parties.

ALGA President Cr Paul Bell has written to all councils urging them to help ALGA in its efforts to obtain a political commitment to the Fund. Councils can support ALGA by submitting examples of failing community infrastructure onto the Register at www.alga.asn.au.

Government announces broadband plans

Smart Truck

ALGA welcomes the Government's recent broadband announcement. This has been a major theme of the State of the Regions Reports over the past few years. Both political parties now have proposals on the table that appear to recognise the critical importance of broadband for the economic and social welfare of the nation.

The Government's plan, which it calls Australia Connected, has two main initiatives:

  • Roll-out of broadband to rural and regional areas by 2009, using a wireless system and undertaken by a joint venture of Optus and Elders (This initiative will be partly funded by $958 million from the Federal Government); and
  • A new commercial fibre optic network to be rolled out to the cities and large regional centres following a competitive bid process (This initiative will not receive any government funding).

The Government promises that its plan will deliver much improved broadband speeds in a shorter timeframe, at a lower cost and to a wider range of rural and regional users than the Opposition's plan which was announced in March.

The rural and regional broadband network will be supported by a range of fibre optic, cable and wireless technologies and is expected to reach 99 per cent of the Australian population, providing speeds of up to 12 megabits per second by 2009. It will be a wholesale network aimed at promoting competition amongst service providers. The remaining one per cent of the population not serviced by the new network will be entitled to a subsidy of $2,750 per household under the Australian Broadband Guarantee.

A new one stop consumer help centre called BroadbandNow will be established to provide telephone and web information to help consumers to understand the technology options available to them and to provide information about how to get connected.

The $2 billion Communications Fund will remain untouched and be used to provide an income stream for future technology upgrades for regional and rural consumers.

The new commercial fibre optic network in the cities will be provided after a competitive bidding process overseen by an Expert Taskforce to ensure an open, transparent and timely process.

The Government's policy announcement can be viewed in full at: www.minister.dcita.gov.au/media/media_releases.

The announcement, not surprisingly, has triggered debate about the adequacy of wireless technology, the differentiation between rural and urban users, and the duplication of existing infrastructure. The issues are complex and the competing advantages of the differing proposals from the Government and the Opposition are likely to be the subject of much more analysis over the next few months. What is clear, however, is that both parties have focused on solutions which reach the greatest proportion of rural and regional users. This has always been the priority for ALGA.

Local Government and Climate Change

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ALGA President Cr Paul Bell AM has written to the Prime Minister outlining local government's interest in working in partnership on climate change following the announcement of funding of $126 million over 5 years for an Australian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation and a further $103 million over 4 years for the CSIRO Climate Adaptation and Energy Research Flagship. The new 'Australian centre for climate change adaptation' will provide governments including local government, industry and the community with clear and reliable information to assess risks and develop adaptation strategies. It is expected that the centre will have a strong focus on the needs of decision makers and will synthesise and communicate existing and emerging knowledge for adaptation. Its central role will be to strategically focus research efforts in areas of common benefit, link existing research organisations and coordinate multidisciplinary and cross sectoral investigations.
From the President

Whenever I talk to my colleagues in local government, from all states and territories, the one thing that impresses me most is the pride people feel about their local communities. Pride in what their communities have to offer, pride in what their communities have preserved and pride in how they, as local government councillors, have made a difference.

They take pride in the way their local councils plan. The way they balance competing heritage, environmental, commercial, social and cultural factors, the transparency of their processes, and the engagement of the public, whether it be private individuals, businesses, developers or the broader community.

Planning at the council level is about planning from the grass roots up. It's certainly not about an approach where development applications are a rubber stamp with no community or council input or where developers can buy their way around planning controls and planning approval conditions. It's definitely not about a top down approach.

Harmonisation of planning regimes and especially the merits of top down planning have been on the agenda of the NSW Planning Minister the Hon Frank Sartor MP. If you read the reports in the press in recent weeks he has been meeting with his counterparts in other states to consider these issues. Reports suggest he has been espousing the virtues of his NSW reforms including Part 3A of the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act which allows the Minister to fast track 'major' infrastructure projects. While everyone would accept the role of State Governments in pursuing matters of state or regional significance, you can start to run into problems when terms like 'major infrastructure' are so loosely defined that they create more uncertainty, not less.

Criticism of local government planning and attempts to impose a top down approach are not new. Several years ago, one of my predecessors as ALGA President, Cr Mike Montgomery was forced to respond to substantial and largely unjustified attacks on local government and planners coming from a number of quarters, particularly property, business and housing interests. His response was called "Planning from the Grass Roots Up". Well, they say the more things change the more they stay the same. Those same groups continue to attack local government but now they have been joined by some Federal and State Ministers who blame local government and planning for a range of ills including the lack of affordable housing, poor public transport systems, traffic congestion, water shortages, breakdown of community resilience and an explosion in the time taken to approve development applications.

For the most part, criticism levelled at local government largely focuses on the time taken and the way in which some development applications are processed. The emphasis is always on the extreme cases and there is never any acknowledgement of the factors which can afffect such figures including poor application design, lack of supporting information, loss or illness of staff, delays in receiving feedback from referal agencies and so on. I think we would all agree that local government planning works well in the face of such constraints and that local government has never shied away from the fact that there is room for improvement.

For the record, local government elected representatives rarely step into the development approval process. When they do, it is nearly always to reflect community concern about specific developments. This intervention can sometimes be resolved by revising the planning policy in question, but in many instances it goes beyond that and is actually about interpreting the inherent merits of an application and its ongoing social, economic and environment impact on the community.

The reality is that no matter how careful and how robust a planning policy might be, there will be applications that may technically conform with planning requirements, but will still incense the community. And when a community gets upset, it wants, expects and deserves action from its democratically elected councillors. Whilst such experiences may cause frustration the alternative is to narrow the decision making authority, restrict or eliminate community participation and codify everything to the lowest common denominator. Such an alternative is hardly the sign of progressive and civil society!

Local government is all in favour of having a balanced and sensible debate about planning reform and better resourced strategic planning and implementation in all spheres of government. But whatever we do, we must not weaken the concept of 'planning from the grassroots up'.

Cr Paul Bell AM
ALGA President

Mosaic Map Launch

This week the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Hon Peter McGauran MP and Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, the Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP, launched a new website that showcases over 400 projects which have significantly improved the management of Australia's natural resources.

The Mosaic Map website highlights a selection of projects located in 56 regions across Australia which have been funded over the last 10 years under the Government's $5.1 billion Natural Heritage Trust, and the associated $1.4 million National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality.

The website displays a map of Australia which allows users to search for Trust and National Action Plan projects at a national, state, territory and regional level. Short articles on up to 10 projects chosen by the natural resource management regional bodies are featured for each region, together with high quality images. More projects will be featured as the website is further developed.

This tool allows for the sharing of knowledge and experiences in natural resource management. It is easily accessible and provides land managers, planners, researchers, community organisations and individuals with a source of inspiration.

For more information go to the Mosaic Map website www.nrm.gov.au.
Local Roads and Transport Congress goes ahead in Newcastle on 8-10 July

Despite the recent major flooding in Newcastle the ALGA Local Roads and Transport Congress will go ahead as planned on 8-10 July. The Congress provides local government with the opportunity to tell both the Federal Government and the Opposition about its transport priorities and now will provide an opportunity to offer our support to Newcastle as it returns to business as usual.

The Local Roads and Transport Congress has a strong track record of success, being the main driver behind the Roads to Recovery Program. The Government and the Opposition have now both committed to continuing the Program through to 2014. But local government cannot afford to sit back and assume that the local road funding job has been done.

It is important that local government continues to show support for the extension of the Roads to Recovery Program and argues for its future permanence. With both sides of politics well represented at the Congress and the Federal election due later this year the Congress is well placed to influence both the Government and the Opposition on issues of concern to local government.

The Congress is also the opportunity for those councils that have other transport priorities, such as urban public transport, to put them on the on the political agenda for the forthcoming election.

Don't miss out on your chance to influence transport policy at the most important local government transport event of the year. There is only two weeks to go before the Congress but there is still time to register.

Delegates can register and pay for the Congress online at www.alga.asn.au/roadscongress. The same site can be used for booking accommodation, the partner program and pre and post Congress tours.

Local Government Support Each Other

New South Wales councils have been quick to provide support for Newcastle City Council in the wake of the floods that devastated the region. The Lord Mayor of Newcastle, Cr John Tate, put out an call for assistance, that was relayed to Sydney councils by the Local Government Association of NSW. The association reported in a recent press release that at least ten councils have already confirmed they are sending trucks, staff and other resources to assist in the mammoth clean up effort. These councils include: Blue Mountains, Campbelltown, City of Sydney, Fairfield, Manly, Marrickville, North Sydney, Ryde, Sutherland and Waverley. Randwick Council has also confirmed that it is assisting Wyong. It is understood that other Sydney councils are looking at how they may be able to assist in the clean up.

Local Government Action on Ageing Survey and Planning for Health Initiatives

ALGA will shortly be asking all Councils across Australia to take part in an online survey to gauge the extent of Local Government awareness of the impacts of ageing in their communities, and the actions taken to address these impacts.

The survey will be accessible from the ALGA website www.alga.asn.au and the results will also be posted on the ALGA website when they become available.

ALGA has undertaken similar surveys in previous years; however this survey will include some modifications to provide greater detail on how effective the local government response to ageing has been, and whether the response has been across the range of Council functions that they have the potential to impact upon.

The results will inform future work and highlight areas where local government may require assistance from other spheres of government.

ALGA has also been taking part in a joint project with the National Heart Foundation and the Planning Institute of Australia. This project, which has the support of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing will see the development of planning guidelines for healthy environments for all ages in our communities.

To support this work ALGA is calling for input from local Council's across Australia. We would like to hear from you how local government is currently addressing these issues in a positive manner. This can be in the form of case studies, projects or best practice examples. These examples will then be available to develop resources for local governments across Australia, and will also provide a great opportunity to promote the good work that many Councils are doing.

If you would like to discuss these matters further, or if you want to participate by providing your case study, please contact ALGA's Matt Lawrence by email at matt.lawrence@alga.asn.au.

Audit of the Blackspots Program

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report on the Blackspots Program was tabled in Federal Parliament on 19 June 2007. The report can be found at www.anao.gov.au.

The report examined the administration of the Program in four states: New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia. It is critical of the administration of the Program and makes three key findings:

  • in each of the four states examined, projects that did not satisfy the Program eligibility criteria were recommended and approved for funding;
  • economic appraisal practices are inconsistent across and within each of the four states examined with the result that the ranking of projects resulted in lower priority road safety projects being selected and funded; and
  • the financial accountability arrangements mean that the Department of Transport and Regional Services (DOTARS) has limited knowledge of the final cost of projects.

ANAO also identified significant shortcomings in the delivery of projects. Of the 273 projects examined 56% were not delivered as required:

  • 39 % were not delivered in the approved Program year;
  • 32% of the projects sampled were different to the approved works;
  • 8% only partially addressed the identified black spot location; and
  • 1% of projects were reported as complete, yet road safety works were not evident on site

While these findings indicate shortfalls in the administration of the program there is nothing to suggest that the fundamental aims of the Program, which is to target funds to remove or improve the safety of dangerous locations on the roads and in that way improve safety of our communities, is not being met.

All projects funded were worthwhile road safety projects that should have been funded. There remain many more safety projects that could have, and need to be funded, if Australia is to meets its targets of reducing road fatalities.

Local Government stands ready to work with the Australian Government and the states to improve the administration of the program to achieve the best possible safety outcome for Australian communities and welcomes the Budget announcement of the continuation of the Program to 2014 with an increase in funding from $45 million to $60 million per year.

Quote of the week

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

State of the Regions report 2006-07