Communiqués
National Local Roads and Transport Congress
13 July 2004, Tanunda, South Australia
More than 530 delegates from all states and territories attended the 5th National Local Roads Congress meeting at Tanunda in the Barossa Valley, South Australia, on 11-13 July, 2004.
2004 National Local Roads and Transport Congress
Local government owns and maintains 680,000 km of roads, or around 85 per cent of the national road network, an asset valued at $75 billion. This local road network is under increasing pressure with freight and passenger transport forecast to increase dramatically over the next decade. It is estimated that $640m a year is needed to address the current backlog of local road maintenance and repair work. The Congress discussed a wide range of challenges and opportunities facing local government as it responds to these concerns.
The major issues addressed by the Congress included: the operation of the renewed Roads to Recovery program, particularly the $400m strategic component of the program, the implications for local government of the recently announced AusLink program, regional road programs, state and local government cooperation, national heavy vehicle reforms, transport security, community transport/mobility of older persons and local government road safety programs. It also show-cased local government best practice.
Renew Roads to Recovery campaign
Delegates congratulated the Australian Government for renewing the vital Roads to Recovery program for a further four years, a national investment of $1.2 billion. The renewed program - R2R2 - will commence in July 2005. They also welcomed Labor's commitment to renew the Roads to Recovery program at the same funding levels. ALGA President, Cr Mike Montgomery, congratulated all those in local government who had contributed to the strong and successful campaign to secure the program's renewal.
Australian Government commitments
Delegates welcomed commitments made to the Congress by the Federal Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads, Senator Ian Campbell, that:
- responding to local government concerns, local government in each state and territory will be allocated a fixed, fair share of the $400m strategic funding component of the renewed Roads to Recovery program
- the future of the current Black Spot road safety program, which runs until 2005/06, would be considered by Cabinet following a program review, currently underway, and would receive favourable consideration
- a strong emphasis would continue to be placed on close consultation with local government
Labor commitments
Delegates welcomed commitments made by the Federal Shadow Minister for Urban and Regional Development, Transport and Infrastructure, Mr Martin Ferguson, that Labor in government will:
- renew the Roads to Recovery program for four years at $300m a year
- renew the Black Spots road safety program
- include local government in the proposed National Infrastructure Advisory Council
Congress resolutions
Delegates confirmed the critical importance of Roads to Recovery, which is slowing the rate of decline in the condition of Australia's local roads. The following resolutions were adopted by delegates.
- This Congress congratulates Minister Ian Campbell for his decision to endorse ALGA's preferred approach that the strategic component of Roads to Recovery funds should be notionally quarantined at specified state/territory levels.
- That where the regional component of R2R2 is spent on roads normally funded by the states, those governments be required to contribute new funding on a dollar for dollar basis.
- This Congress (1) strongly urges the Australian Government to continue the national Black Spot program beyond 2005/06, with a 25% funding increase, from an identified source of funds net of the AusLink program; and (2) encourages the Australian Government to broaden criteria for Black Spot funding to include sites that are potentially dangerous as well as those that are demonstrably accident prone.
- This Congress calls on state and territory governments to transparently and comprehensively collect and report on their road expenditures; and encourages local government associations to collaborate with State Grants Commissions to develop and collect consistent and comparable data on local roads expenditure at all levels.
- This Congress calls on Austroads to pursue the standardisation of road classifications and terminology throughout all Australian states and territories.
- This Congress reaffirms local government's commitment to a consistent road asset management approach across Australia and to continually improving road data acquisition. This Congress also encourages ALGA, IPWEA, appropriate professional associations and all state local government associations to collaborate as required to achieve these important outcomes.
- That with the demise of ATSIC and the Federal Government's stated position of a bottom-up approach to funding Aboriginal communities, this Congress calls on the Federal Government to ensure affected local government authorities receive adequate and increased funding if further Aboriginal community internal access roads are determined to be the responsibility of relevant local authorities.
- In order to address the long-term funding pressure on local roads, this Congress calls for local government to gain access to fair and reasonable sources of growth funds and for strong and appropriate responses from the major parties to the recommendations of the Fair Share report on cost shifting and local government finances.
6th National Local Roads and Transport Congress, Launceston
ALGA will convene the 6th National Local Roads and Transport Congress at Launceston in Tasmania on 3-5 July, 2005.
