National Local Roads and Transport Congress
Alice Springs Convention Centre: July 10-11, 2006
See also: National Local Roads and Transport Congress 2006
Local government seeks lasting solution to $400m road funding shortfall
Local government needs a long-term solution to the shortfall in funding for Australia's 680,000km of local roads, the President of the Australian Local Government Association, Cr Paul Bell, said today. He was opening the 7th National Local Roads Congress in Alice Springs this morning.
More than 400 delegates from councils across Australia are participating at the two day meeting. Local roads are an $80bn asset comprising around 85% of the nation's entire road network.
Cr Bell said that the Australian Government was providing a great deal of valuable assistance to local government to help with the massive task of maintaining local roads, particularly through the much needed and much welcome Roads to Recovery program.
"But even with this critically important assistance, there is still a shortfall of $404m a year between what councils can afford to invest in local roads and the funding needed to maintain them in a fit-for-purpose state," Cr Bell said.
"Local government alone cannot meet the massive cost of maintaining the local road asset and needs sustained assistance from other spheres of government.
"The Roads Congress is developing a national roads and transport strategy that seeks long-term funding solutions for local roads. In particular, we are looking at ways of making the Australian Government's $1.2bn Roads to Recovery program into a permanent feature of federal-local government financial relations.
"Consideration of a draft roads and transport strategy will be a major focus for the Congress.
"It will be a first for local government, providing a plan that sets out the national road and transport needs and priorities for communities across the country for the coming decade. The draft strategy focuses on four core areas of concern to local government:
- Local road network funding and management
- Urban transport solutions
- Mobility for regional Australians
- Freight management
"Action is needed by all three spheres of government to address the transport problems confronting Australia's 700 local government authorities and the communities we serve.
"We need a strategic plan behind which local government can rally - a plan that will take us forward, addressing the problems and difficulties confronting all communities, from our inner cities to remote communities.
"These problems include the need for long-term funding certainty for local roads, lack of access to transport services in regional areas, the impact of congestion, noise and pollution on urban amenity and the need to better manage the rapidly increasing freight loads carried through our cities and towns.
"The strategy seeks to carry our transport agenda forward over the coming decade and assist ALGA with its lobbying work in advance of the 2007 federal election," Cr Bell said.
Cr Bell's opening address to the Congress is on the ALGA website: www.alga.asn.au/roadscongress
- Contact
- Cr Paul Bell AM, ALGA President - 0418 791 596
- Rohan Greenland, ALGA Public Affairs - 0412 85 9434 / 02 6122 9434
