Councils across Australia are this week receiving their log-in details for ALGA's National State of the Assets Community Infrastructure Report for 2015.
The ALGA Board has committed to expanding the State of the Assets Report to encompass the range of infrastructure owned and managed by councils to build a more complete picture of the state of all infrastructure in local communities and to add to the evidence base about why further investment in infrastructure is needed.
ALGA has commissioned Jeff Roorda and Associates (JRA) in partnership with the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG), the Institute of Public Works Australasia (IPEWA) and JAC Comrie to undertake the work.
As a result, this report will capture, for the first time, the state of the local road network along with a range of community infrastructure, from buildings and facilities to parks, stormwater, waste water and airports and aerodromes.
In addition to the local road network, local government is responsible for billions of dollars worth of community infrastructure. We know this infrastructure provides the social and economic backbone for communities throughout Australia. What we don't know is the condition of this infrastructure. This report will help us develop a better understanding of the status of this important infrastructure.
In our 2015-16 Budget Submission, ALGA has called on the Federal Government to commit $300 million per annum to funding regional and community infrastructure for the next four years to stimulate growth over the longer term and build community resilience.
A Federal investment like this would help address the backlog of investment in community infrastructure. While local government knows this backlog exists, the new report will help provide the hard evidence to back up our advocacy work.
I urge all councils to take the time to support this project. It will provide valuable data for ALGA, but also for local government as a whole on the state of our assets and it will help ALGA build a case for additional investment by the Commonwealth in our local communities.
For further information on the project contact Kym Foster at ALGA via email kym.foster@alga.asn.au or project manager Steve Verity at jrajra@bigpond.com.
The findings from the project will be released at the 2015 National Local Roads and Transport Congress in Ballarat in November.
Mayor Troy Pickard
ALGA President