Speeches: 2004
Sustainable communities in Australia: The national agenda
The central pillars of sustainability will be familiar to you all. Economic, social, environmental and - increasingly - cultural sustainability are becoming embedded in the way local government plans, develops and delivers its core services. You are hearing today about specific activities being undertaken by two innovative councils and one state government. I'd like to fill in the gaps, if I may, and focus on what local government is doing at the national and international levels.
Address to CLAIR Forum on the state of sustainability
Councillor Mike Montgomery
President, Australian Local Government Association
20 February 2004: Perth
Thank you, chairman.
I'd like to start by congratulting CLAIR for hosting this important forum on sustainability.
CLAIR has an active and lively agenda of engagement of local government both here in Australia and across the Asia-Pacific region.
ALGA is an enthusiastic participant of CLAIR activities and as such we thank the organisation and its officers for the invitation to be here today.
Local government across Australia is a major agent of change in the drive towards a sustainable future for our communities, for our nation, for our planet.
It is one player that really does think globally and act locally.
The central pillars of sustainability will be familiar to you all. Economic, social, environmental and - increasingly - cultural sustainability are becoming embedded in the way local government plans, develops and delivers its core services.
You are hearing today about specific activities being undertaken by two innovative councils and one state government.
I'd like to fill in the gaps, if I may, and focus on what local government is doing at the national and international levels.
And I'd like to finish by looking at ways we could enhance our national approach to sustainability, building on the achievements of the past few years.
International cooperation
Much of ALGA's work on sustainable communities is guided by international action and cooperation.
Australian local government has been an active participant in the World Summit for Sustainable Development processes.
The roles and responsibilities of both national and local governments gained much attention at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
It was this UN conference that produced Agenda 21, a document that set out a blueprint for sustainable activity across all areas of human endeavour.
From this comes Local Agenda 21, a program that provides a framework for implementing sustainable development at the local level.
Also in 1992, Australia developed a national strategy for ecologically sustainable development - a document that is still relevant today.
In the decade since Rio, local government's role as a 'major group' in the UN sustainable development process has become better recognised and has reached a new level of maturity.
By the time of the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in September 2001, over 750 local government representatives from across the globe participated in a four day local government session.
This event was organised by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives - ICLEI. It was a huge global demonstration of the energy and strength of commitment of local government to sustainable development.
The four day session concluded by endorsing the Local Government Declaration to the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development.
Some 45 local government delegates from Australia attended the summit, including three from ALGA.
Two of the ALGA representatives were part of the official Australian national delegation, highlighting the importance the Australian Government placed on local government participation.
ALGA's role was to provide input to the Australian position, liaise with local government representatives in other national delegations and delegates of the Local Government Parallel Event and to be a voice for local government within the national delegation.
ALGA's involvement in the WSSD processes was extremely important for local government in Australia.
In the first instance, ALGA - and through it, local government as a whole - was formally recognised by the Australian Government as a legitimate partner in the national sustainability processes.
Secondly, Australian local government is now directly involved as a partner with other local governments globally.
National governments across the globe now recognise the role of local government through the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development.
This document commits them to assume collective responsibility to advance and strengthen sustainable development at the global, regional, national and local levels.
Under the declaration, national governments also recognise the value of Local Agenda 21. The declaration states that:
"… sustainable development requires a long term perspective and broad based participation in policy formulation, decision-making and implementation at all levels".
National governments also agreed - and I quote "to strengthen and improve governance at all levels for the effective implementation of Local Agenda 21, the Millennium Development Goals and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation".
We would have welcomed a more explicit paragraph that included a direct reference to local governments.
But we achieved our main goal - that local governments are recognised and supported by national governments worldwide as equal partners to other spheres of government in our commitment to achieve sustainable development.
The national agenda
Returning from Johannesburg, ALGA conducted a number of workshops which reported back to local governments on the outcomes of WSSD.
Many of the workshops were conducted in collaboration with our state and territory local government associations and ICLEI.
ALGA also worked with representatives of the Australian and state and territory governments to develop an on-going agenda to implement summit recommendations.
Whether creating political visions, ensuring the administration of justice, planning for infrastructure and services, protecting public health or ensuring basic human needs are provided for, all levels of government are vital to the achievement of the goals of Local Agenda 21.
There is now wide spread involvement of local government in Local Agenda 21 in almost every state and territory of Australia.
There is also extensive collaboration between local government and ICLEI.
Globally, ICLEI facilitates the involvement of more than 6,000 local governments in Local Agenda 21. This includes almost 200 councils in Australia.
A specific feature of the work of ICLEI is that their approach is based upon cultural change. This involves:
- Capacity building in councils
- The development of performance-based milestones
- Sharing of mutual learnings and support between councils
- Implementing actual changes embedded in long-term vision
- The quantification and triple bottom line business cases for councils
An important element in achieving actual change is the milestone framework.
This involves activities such as the preparation of inventories and forecasts for council and communities, establishing reduction goals and implementing local action plans.
One of the most successful programs conducted by ICLEI is 'Cities for Climate Protection'.
Internationally there are over 500 participants in this program, and over 180 cities and towns are engaged in Australia. This is about 25% of all Australian councils, and covers more than 75% of the Australian population.
Local government action under the CCP program has saved an annual cumulative total of more than 740,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2002-03.
We have also made the sound business case for reducing emissions - something we always need to do to ensure that our programs can be sustained beyond a budget cycle or two.
In fact, so successful has this program been that Australia will now help establish a similar voluntary abatement program in New Zealand as part of the Trans-Tasman Bilateral Climate Change Partnership program announced in July last year.
In a further development, the Environment Minister, Dr David Kemp, announced late last year that funding - albeit modest funding of $1m over five years - had been provided for a water campaign based on the CCP program model.
Urban sustainability
Dr Kemp deserves much credit for helping to drive issues of sustainability in Australia and to engage local government in the process.
He has also pursued the concept of sustainability through a new and important parliamentary inquiry into sustainable cities.
This is a welcome development, as the Commonwealth has been somewhat reluctant to become involved in urban agendas over the past few years.
The inquiry will report on the development of sustainable cities to the year 2025.
It will also develop a blueprint for ecologically sustainable patterns of settlement with particular reference to eco-efficiency and equity in the provision of services and infrastructure.
These are important agendas for all Australians and all spheres of government.
The inquiry is already generating significant debate. One academic has, for example, recently challenged the concept of the triple bottom line - now extensively used by local government - saying there needs to be a single bottom line which avoids fragmented responses to the challenge of achieving a more sustainable society.
Needless to say a lot more debate will be had during the course of the inquiry. But the results and findings will be significant and will help shape the national agenda for many years to come.
NAP/NHT regional governance
I turn now to some specific measures and actions that could be taken at a national level.
One such area is the regional governance arrangements that accompany two critically important programs - the Natural Heritage Trust Extension and the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality.
These programs are helping to repair our environment and put it on a secure and sustainable footing. They are programs which partner the states and territories and engage local government.
Under the first phase of the Natural Heritage Trust, for example, local government projects received more than $110m for tree planting, erosion prevention, protecting and enhancing our coastal areas and a host of other environmentally important work.
The Australian Government has acknowledged the fact that these programs are best tackled at the regional and local community level.
To this end, they established new structures and processes to roll out the programs.
Dr Kemp has said that local government needs to have self-confidence to lead within and beyond their immediate communities, working with other councils and regional organisations to deliver effective solutions to sustainability across Australia.
Well, local government already has the confidence to do this and does do it - day in day out - in different forums and bodies the length and breadth of this country.
However, some concern has been voiced by local government over its limited involvement with both NAP and NHT.
Local government could and should be more closely engaged in regional structures to achieve the full potential of these two programs.
Changes are occurring in the regional governance arrangements and there is a review of the red tape that accompanies these programs.
That's a good thing. But I would urge the Australian Government to keep on the case and work with local government to fine tune and improve existing arrangements.
Sustainable urban transport
Another issue that deserves to be firmly on the national agenda is sustainable urban transport.
We will, in the next few months, see the Federal Government's full White Paper on an integrated national land transport plan, or AusLink.
AusLink focuses largely on freight corridors around Australia.
As a nation, we also need to find a sustainable urban transport agenda that examines issues such as pollution, congestion, urban sprawl, greenhouse gas emissions, economic growth and social amenity.
The need for this is clear. Australia is one of the highest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world on a per capita basis. In 2000, all transport in Australia was responsible for 76 megatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, with transport - mostly road transport - accounting for some 31 per cent of this.
The Commonwealth has traditionally seen transport planning and public transport as state responsibilities.
But urban transport is but one part of the entire urban system, inextricably bound with the issue of sustainability - environmental, social and economic.
Urban transport is about networks, not transport modes. And in this context, it is equally about planning and infrastructure - in other words, core business for local government.
We will certainly be encouraging the Australian Government to embrace this agenda and to move forward in partnership with state and local governments.
National water initiative
The search for sustainability will be a long one. But fundamentally, it will be about change. Nowhere is this more clear than with our use of water.
Last year's agreement by the Council of Australian Governments to implement a national water initiative is a major breakthrough of international significance.
Our existing system - if it can be called that - presents us with a range of serious problems including:
- declining water quality
- serious environmental problems
- over-allocation of water - a problem created by state governments
- community stress particularly during times of drought
The potential gains of water reform are enormous. They include agricultural and economic growth, an improved investment climate in many regional areas, community growth, better water quality, improved river health and other important environmental gains.
ALGA - as a full member of COAG - has been part of this process of developing the national water initiative and actively participates at the working parties that are helping to turn the principles agreed at the last COAG meeting into workable arrangements on the ground.
A significant part of the initiative is the introduction of water markets. But their introduction will have significant impacts for many communities that now depend on irrigation for their economic well being.
ALGA is calling for community-focused structural adjustment packages to be funded as part of the reform process.
This will ensure that communities adversely affected by water markets will be able to manage change and help communities adjust to new economic circumstances as water use flows to high value users.
In the drive for sustainability, we will need to implement and drive change - but that change must be sensitive and intelligent change.
We must be conscious of the social and cultural impacts of change as well as the environmental and economic ones. Indeed, that is the essence of sustainability.
Future challenges
I see three challenges for government in the years ahead:
- resourcing capacity building
- addressing institutional barriers
- integrating sustainability principles in all aspects of government policy and community activity
These challenges could perhaps be better met if we adopted a comonly-agreed and well-defined national framework that draws together key drivers of sustainability.
In particular, we should look at a framework that could draw together key areas such as water, energy, natural resource management and greenhouse gas emissions.
Some have argued for an intergrated national strategy for dealing with water, urban growth and the marine environment.
Other ideas include an inter-governmental agreement on population and settlement and a national commissioner for the environment.
Whatever ideas we might adopt, there is a clear need to build on existing activities and achievements.
We should avoid having a patchwork of partial policies on sustainability and work towards a more holistic approach.
Fortunately, the need for a national strategy for sustainability has not been lost on Dr Kemp.
Speaking in October last year, he said - and I quote:
"The Australian Government is seeking to put in place a national strategic framework that will make possible the sustainability of this country, and the putting of the Australian continent on a sustainable basis".
That's an agenda that we in local government are pleased to see on the table. It is a broad commitment at this stage. But local government is keen to explore this concept with the Minister to see how it might evolve and what role local government might play.
Conclusion
I have today looked at local government's involvement in the drive towards a sustainable future both at the international and the national levels.
I have also looked at some areas where Australia is performing well and have suggested some areas for further action.
I'd like to finish simply by saying that the road to sustainability will be long and hard.
But it's one that must be undertaken by all spheres in government working in genuine partnership to achieve a better, brighter future for the communites we collectively serve.
Thank you.
Mike Montgmoery, 20 February 2004
