Welcome to the 2006 Roads Congress
It's time to plan for our future
Welcome to Alice Springs for what I’m sure will be a landmark Congress.
It’s time to plan for our future. With the beefed-up Roads to Recovery program now well underway and the AusLink strategic regional program rolling out, we have some breathing space to examine our medium to long-term road and transport needs and set some clear goals and priorities.
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 councils, from our inner cities to remote communities.
A series of important reports, including the Allan Report in NSW and the inquiry into council financial sustainability in South Australia, have made one thing abundantly clear. The pressure on local government infrastructure continues to grow.
Where ever we look, councils are struggling to provide for the basic needs of our communities.
Despite improved funding, local roads—the very building blocks of our communities—remain under pressure.
Regional and urban communities also face a range of other, pressing transport issues, from congestion, pollution and parking to restricted mobility through rationalisation of bus, train and air services.
Last year, delegates to the Launceston Congress agreed to work together to address the policy issues concerning the transport needs of all communities. Delegates asked that a national local roads and transport strategy be prepared that will take us beyond the influential Butcher Report (developed as a result of the first Congress in 2000) and towards a plan that addresses our collective needs over the next 10 to 20 years.
ALGA and state associations have spent the past year preparing a strategy to do just that. Consideration of this strategy will be the key task for the Congress.
I look forward to working with you at the Congress so that, together, we can secure lasting solutions to our road and transport needs.
Cr Paul Bell, AM
ALGA President
