Homepage

The Building Stronger Homes Roundtable wants codes, standards, and land use planning systems revised to promote housing resilience. The roundtable was established by the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) and Master Builders Australia (MBA) to discuss policy changes that make buildings throughout Australia more resilient. ICA chief executive officer Andrew Hall said increased collaboration was+

An Australia-wide network of mass immunisation centres, supported by local government, could get the nation’s flagging Covid-19 vaccine program back on track. University of NSW epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws, pictured, said this week that vaccinations would need to be stepped up significantly if most of the adult population is to receive at least one shot by+

Telstra has lost its bid to overturn a Federal Court decision preventing it from installing payphones with large digital advertising screens in Melbourne and Brisbane. The High Court’s refusal last week to hear Telstra’s appeal ends a long-running bid by the company to install 1800 “next generation” payphones across capital cities under Under schedule 3+

Australia’s first underground automated general waste collection system in Maroochydore, Queensland will be switched on in July. Waste and recyclables from buildings and street bins in the new 53-hectare Maroochydore City Centre will be pumped through a 6.5km network of underground pipes at speeds of up to 70km/h to a collection station for transfer to+

A digital tool to highlight long-term trends in coastal erosion and growth has been launched by Geoscience Australia’s Digital Earth Australia (DEA) program. The tool was developed with input from local councils, state governments, academia and citizen scientists, and will provide scientists, managers, and planners with the means to reliably assess impacts to Australia’s coastlines+

The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) has received than 160 motions for possible inclusion in the 2021 National General Assembly Business Papers. The motions cover topics such as the lack of local government representation in National Cabinet, funding for local governments, and the role of councils in economic development and job creation. ALGA President Linda+

New funding has been announced for recycling and clean energy projects under the Federal Government’s $1.3 billion Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI). Initial applications will be limited to the “Translation and Integration” streams of the MMI, with expressions of interest for the larger “Collaboration” stream to open soon. The MMI is intended to help manufacturers in+

Australia’s next national plan to reduce violence against women and their children must involve a more uniform approach across jurisdictions, a new parliamentary report says. Whilst noting the achievements of the National Plan to reduce violence against women and their children 2010-22 – including the creation of Our Watch – the House of Representatives Standing+

A national approach to public toilets is needed to increase accessibility and participation in social, economic and civic life, a Queensland researcher says. Churchill Fellow Katherine Webber has proposed that key stakeholders able to influence public lavatory design and management (including the Australian Local Government Association and Infrastructure Australia) develop design and functionality guidelines based+

Local governments are being encouraged to make the new Australian Water Safety Strategy 2030 central to their drowning prevention policies. The strategy seeks to raise awareness about non-fatal drowning incidents, encourage communities to create local water safety plans, and promote access to swimming and water safety skills for all Australians, particularly for those living in+

Victorian local governments will have to report on and improve gender equality in the workplace under new legislation that came into force this week. The landmark Gender Equality Act 2020 is designed to close the pay gap across all 300 of the state’s public sector employers, improve gender equality at all levels of the workforce,+

Prominent Tasmanian local government members say online abuse and attacks are having a chilling effect on women wanting to serve on councils. The high-profile group issued a joint statement raising concerns about safe workplaces and respect for women last week. It was signed by Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds (pictured), Deputy Lord Mayor Helen Burnet,+

Development of a circular economy is being held back a lack of awareness and knowledge, say local government and other industry stakeholder groups. Deficits in supportive policies, regulations, and standards across all levels of government are also perceived as a barrier to circular economy progress in Australia’s built environment, according to a stakeholder survey conducted+

A soft plastics collection trial on the NSW Central Coast is set to be scaled up and rolled out to 140,000 households in the coming months. In what is being billed as the forerunner to a national product stewardship scheme for plastics, the Central Coast Council has partnered with Australian recycler iQRenew, and multinational food+

Victorian councils lack the comprehensive data needed for cost-efficient and effective road maintenance, a new audit report says. The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) audited five councils across a spread of types and sizes to determine whether they were achieving value for money when maintaining their road network. Its report, Maintaining Local Roads, concluded that the+

Metropolitan governance structures must allow for a greater role for local government if urban growth and development are to be managed more effectively. According to the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), present and emergent models of metropolitan governance have not emphasised participation or democratic impulses at the local or metropolitan levels, even though+

More urban vegetation is urgently needed in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney to protect residents against the likelihood of extreme temperatures by 2060, a new report claims. Commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation and prepared by the Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub, the report says that without more urban greening and concerted climate action, Brisbane+

The NSW Government has opposed plans for an electric scooter trial in Sydney despite local council support for the devices to be trialled there. Transport Minister Andrew Constance recently told Budget Estimates in the NSW Parliament that he was “not in the mood” to have e-scooters on Sydney streets, even though his department, Transport for+

Local and state planning policies need to be better aligned if city or state-wide development objectives like housing supply targets are to be realised. In a new information paper on short-term planning and zoning policy reform options, the Productivity Commission also canvasses “more flexible and adaptive land-use regulation”. Moving to fewer and more broadly stated+

The Federal Government has announced a $1.2 billion aviation and tourism support package with 800,000 subsidised airline tickets as its centre piece. Under the Tourism Aviation Network Support (TANS) program announced on Thursday, the public will be offered up to 800,000 discounted airline tickets to 15 key tourism regions. These include the Gold Coast, Cairns,+

Airports at Orange, Ballina and the Sunshine Coast have reported strong passenger growth as airlines boost their services to these and other regional centres. South-east Queensland’s Sunshine Coast Airport has gone from having two domestic routes pre-Covid (to Sydney and Melbourne) to seven, with the addition of Adelaide, Canberra, Cairns, Emerald and Newcastle. Orange, in+

The Federal Government has proposed a suite of national actions, including greater consistency of kerbside bin collections, to deal with problematic plastics. Launching the first National Plastics Plan this week, Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley said it was time to change the way plastics are produced and consumed – and that states, industry, and consumers+

South Australian company Reclaim PV Recycling has secured development approval for the country’s first solar panel recovery and recycling facility in suburban Adelaide. Reclaim initially hopes to process about 70,000 panels a year at the Lonsdale facility – and to establish facilities in other major metropolitan areas “in the next one to two years”. The+

Eight Brisbane City Council waste trucks have caught fire this financial year, prompting warnings from Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner. At least two of the fires were started by lithium or lithium-ion batteries, which are commonly used in laptop computers, mobile phones, and power drills, and which can spontaneously ignite when overheated or damaged. In all+

Regional Express (Rex) says it plans to terminate several NSW services as well as its Adelaide-Kangaroo Island route after government subsidies end in March. The decision follows Qantas’s launch of 26 new regional routes, including eight which overlap with Rex’s existing network. In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Monday, Rex deputy+

New technology using video footage and machine learning to automatically assess road conditions is being trialled at a NSW local council. The technology, which has the potential to deliver superior data whilst also saving time and money, is trialled by the Central Coast Council, in conjunction with the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA)+

Local governments have until 10 June 2021 to notify the Department of Foreign Affairs of pre-existing “non-core” foreign arrangements. These are arrangements they entered into with foreign entities before 10 March 2021 – and include sister city arrangements. Additionally, local governments must – from 10 March 2021 onwards – notify the Foreign Affairs Minister before+

Wagga Wagga Council has commissioned a report to explore the “benefits” and “consequences” of not renewing the lease on its Commonwealth-owned airport. The council’s lease on the airport land expires in 2025. Councillor Paul Funnell said the request for the report was due to insufficient grant funding to properly upgrade the ageing airport. The report+

Federal ministerial responses to motions submitted by councils for debate at the 2020 National General Assembly have been published on ALGA’s website. Although the 2020 NGA was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, ALGA agreed to consider the 153 motions that had been submitted by councils for debate. After deliberations by the Board of Directors+

Lilliane Brady, NSW’s longest-serving female mayor and a forceful and effective advocate for her hometown of Cobar, has died aged 90. Cr Brady served on the shire council for 38 years, 20 of them as mayor, and told the ABC’s Back Roads program earlier this month that she planned to retire in September. Cr Brady+

Bans on purified recycled water for drinking should be lifted so that all supply augmentation options can be considered in the future, the Productivity Commission says. In a draft report into national water reform, the commission has also called for the removal of exemptions granted to the minerals and onshore gas industries from water consumption+

The Commonwealth can cement Covid-19 recovery by giving greater support to councils, the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) said this week. In its 2021-22 Pre-Budget Submission, ALGA urged the Morrison Government to prioritise local jobs, infrastructure investment, and community wellbeing initiatives. Economic recovery from Covid-19 and the 2019-20 droughts, floods and bushfires is imperative –+