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Regional and remote areas of Australia will get new or expanded recycling facilities after $7 million in new federal funding was announced this week. The grant funding will be made available through the Recycling Modernisation Fund and will be additional to the 23 projects that have already been identified in regional and remote Australia through+

Commonwealth funding partnerships with relevant jurisdictions are needed to improve road infrastructure, a federal parliamentary inquiry has said. The report from the inquiry into the importance of a viable, safe, sustainable, and efficient road transport industry published last week also said the federal government should: Establish a national fund to assess, maintain and upgrade freight+

Commonwealth efforts to identify regions where people face difficulties accessing GPs will be re-evaluated to address emerging local pressures. Federal Minister for Regional Health David Gillespie announced the review of the Distribution Priority Area (DPA) classification system this week. “I have heard the concerns that the current approach is not capturing current or emerging local+

Council-run early childhood education and care centres affected by Covid-19 restrictions are set to receive additional Commonwealth support. Under a new package announced last week, childcare services in Commonwealth‐declared hotspots of Greater Sydney will be eligible for payments of 25 percent of their pre‐lockdown revenue. ALGA President Linda Scott last week wrote to the Federal+

Thermochemical technologies able to help realise a circular economy for plastics in Australia are not being fully exploited, the national science agency says. A new report by the national science agency says mixed, multi-layer, flexible, or contaminated and other hard-to-recycle plastics could be readily turned back into food-grade recycled plastics or other products using chemical,+

New and easily deployed technology able to extract value-added materials from problematic waste streams is about to be trialled on the NSW South Coast. Dubbed “micro-cycling science”, the novel technology was developed by the University of NSW’s Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) Centre with support from the Australian Research Council. The technology is deployed+

Three north-western NSW councils will take part in a research project to address their long-standing health workforce shortages. The Glen Innes Severn Council and the Gwydir and Narrabri Shire councils will work with a research team to establish, fund, and manage a health workforce recruiter and connector (HWRC) position in each of the three LGAs.+

The Federal Government is allowing childcare centres in any area declared a Covid-19 hotspot for more than seven days to waive gap fees. In line with new arrangements introduced on 19 July, council-run early childhood education and care services affected by recent stay-at-home orders can opt-in to waive gap fees to parents to try to+

Infrastructure resilience can be enhanced by looking not just at assets themselves but how they contribute to societal resilience overall. In two new advisory papers published this week, Infrastructure Australia (IA) recommends a whole-of-system, all-hazards approach to resilience planning focused on strengthening an infrastructure asset as well as the place, precinct, city, and region that+

A federal parliamentary inquiry has called for a national homelessness strategy recognising the vital role played by local governments. The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs report on homelessness in Australia contains 35 recommendations, including that the Commonwealth develop and implement a 10-year national strategy in consultation with state, territory,+

The Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) will develop a national accreditation/certification scheme to support resource recovery and the circular economy. The project will receive funding from the federal Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment (DAWE) and be aligned to key targets in the National Waste Policy Action Plan. Those action plan targets include reducing total+

Regional airports nationwide have been awarded nearly $30 million in grants under Round 2 of the Federal Government’s Regional Airports Program. The 89 projects awarded grants include: Charters Towers Regional Council for airstrip, fencing and other upgrades at Charters Towers Airport in Queensland ($400,000); Kempsey Shire Council for fencing to reduce wildlife intrusion at Kempsey+

Nearly six in 10 local government CEOs say the financial sustainability of their councils was negatively impacted by Covid-19, a new survey shows. However, the survey also shows the pandemic has provided the impetus for many councils to “think outside of the box” about how to maximise revenue, keep costs down, and “sweat” their assets+

Testing of Australia’s redesigned fire danger forecasting system has begun in north Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory. The operational trial of the Australian Fire Danger Rating System (AFDRS) program began on 1 July and will be extended to southern Australia in October when the fire season begins. In the most southerly areas, the+

Over 200 dangerous crash sites on NSW, Victoria, SA, Tasmania, and WA roads will get Black Spot Program fixes in 2021-22. Program funding of $86.9 million was announced this week, with the biggest share set to flow to councils in Victoria and NSW. Queensland Black Spot funding of $20.8 million to improve 67 dangerous crash+

Many local governments and communities lack the resources to identify appropriate solutions to local telecommunications problems, a new issues paper says. Published as a prelude to the 2021 Regional Telecommunications Review, the paper canvasses issues around adequacy, opportunity, and awareness of telco services in both rural, regional and remote areas of Australia. Public consultations for+

The City of Cockburn will install a fringing reef off a beach south of Fremantle in what it is describing as a unique coastal management trial. Engineered reef modules totalling about 100 metres in length will be anchored 50m offshore at the northern end of C.Y. O’Connor Beach in early 2022 to break down wave+

The Federal and Queensland Governments have agreed to invest $20 million each in the Recycling Modernisation Fund (RMF). With Queensland industry set to match that $40 million amount, there will be combined $80 million available through the RMF to fund new plastic, glass and tyre recycling infrastructure upgrades across the state. Deputy Premier and Minister+

National shortages of civil and transport engineers, urban and regional planners, landscape gardeners, and construction project managers are forecast to last well into the future. The 2021 Skills Priority List compiled by the National Skills Commission and released last week also reveals a national shortage of surveyors, arborists, childcare workers, aged or disabled carers, and+

Local government road managers will be able to assess up to 1000 bridges, roads and culverts after a $12.1 million funding announcement this week. The new Commonwealth money will go to support a second phase of the Strategic Local Government Asset Assessment Project (SLGAAP). Established by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) in 2019 with+

Communities in areas badly impacted by the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires can apply for a share of a new $280 million federal grants program. The Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Grants program is prioritising recovery and resilience projects, and has been enabled by a lower-than-expected take-up of programs under the $2 billion National Bushfire Recovery Fund.+

The Federal Government has confirmed funding of $85 million over 10 years to establish the Natural Hazards Research Australia (NHRA) centre. The centre will deliver “evidence-based research to better inform natural disaster preparation and to develop technological solutions to mitigate risks”. A series of workshops and meetings with potential end-users and research partners are planned+

Local government needs to be involved in decision-making about services, infrastructure, and population growth management, the Federal Treasury says. The 2021 Intergenerational Report released by Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg this week points to a decline in Australia’s population growth triggered by Covid-19 border closures, but projects the population will continue growing faster than most other+

Industry players say insufficient capacity to deal with extra recyclable plastics generated by a halt in exports may lead to more plastics being landfilled. As of 1 July, mixed plastic can no longer be sent overseas for processing. Plastic waste sorted into single resin or polymer types can continue being exported, but it too will+

Victoria’s state government has earmarked $127 million in funding to help councils to move to a four-bin household waste and recycling system. The new system will add a purple bin for glass recycling, as well as green for food organics and garden waste, yellow for mixed recycling, and red for rubbish. The Victorian government wants+

The Local Government Association of Tasmania and member councils have raised concerns about land banking’s impacts on statewide housing supply. LGAT President Christina Holmdahl told local media this week that solutions to the issue were needed. She said councils could work with the government to release land that can be made available for affordable housing,+

Australians continue to be avid consumers of news, underscoring the important role newspapers play in the democratic life of local communities. The finding is contained in the 2021 Digital News Report, a survey coordinated by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism based at the University of Oxford. The report found 81 percent of+

Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley has given the solar industry until June 2022 to finalise a nationwide product stewardship scheme. In a speech to the National Press Club last week, Ms Ley said the lack of an industry-wide approach to collecting and recycling solar panels across the country was concerning given the massive popularity of+

Elected member conduct and CEO remuneration in South Australia will be overhauled after state parliament passed a new Amendment Bill last week. Under the Statutes Amendment (Local Government Review) Bill 2020, a new conduct management system will be set up to help councils deal quickly with low-level matters, while an independent Behaviour Standards Panel will+

Single-use plastics will be phased out in NSW by 2025 under the state’s new Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy 2041 released last week. The plan, backed by $356 million in new funding, will also include: financial incentives for manufacturers and producers to design out problematic plastics; requirements for government agencies to prefer recycled content; mandating+

Australia’s solar panel industry has been put on notice and told to step up and embrace product stewardship. Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the uptake of millions of solar panels across the country from rooftops to solar farms has been vital to helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “[However], the explosion of retailers and importers+

An emissions reduction project that’s claimed to be Australia’s largest local government scheme will be implemented next month. From 1 July, 46 Victorian councils will begin taking wind energy supplied by retailer Red Energy to power their town halls, sports grounds, community venues, leisure centres, streetlights, and other infrastructure. Under the terms of the Victorian+

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner wants people back in Australia’s major central business districts and using public transport again. Addressing National Cabinet last week as the chairman of the Council of Capital City Lord Mayors (CCCLM), Cr Schrinner said that while office occupancy rates had increased from the historic low experienced last year, there was+

Copyright laws should be amended to give consumers and independent repairers access to information and tools enabling product fixes, a new draft report says. The Productivity Commission’s draft report on the “right to repair” found the three main sectors where it was becoming harder to get repairs were mobile phones and tablets, motor vehicles, and+