ALGA News

Disaster recovery assistance has been extended to the Gwydir, Moree and Tamworth Local Government Areas in response to severe storms and floods in December. Assistance is being provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA). Communities experienced significant losses and disruption due to heavy rainfall and flooding over several days, including road+

A city planning app developed with input from three NSW local councils has won an international award sponsored by Amazon Web Services. The ArkiCity app developed by the University of Wollongong and Danish company Arki_Lab (in partnership with the Wollongong, Liverpool, and Canterbury-Bankstown councils) encourages users to take a picture of their city then customise+

The NSW and federal governments have announced $35 million in grants to support the remanufacture of recyclable goods, with applications open to local councils. Grants of between $100,000 and $5 million will be allocated to fund eligible infrastructure projects (Stream 1), while eligible trial projects will receive between $50,000 and $1 million (Stream 2). The+

Australia’s health ministers have endorsed changes to the way health star ratings are calculated for unsweetened fruit and vegetable juices. The decision to move to a sugar-based assessment for calculating Health Star Ratings (HSR) means 100 percent unsweetened fruit or vegetable juice will be ranked at two stars – below diet cola and other artificially+

Betterment funding should be a mainstay of Commonwealth disaster recovery funding, the Australian Local Government Association has said. After the 2019-20 bushfires, Federal Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud said state, federal and local governments should embrace the ethos of “build back better” and that “as we face further disasters into the future and I will+

A gender equality advisory committee is being formed to ensure Victoria’s local government sector can “harness the benefits of equality”. The committee will advise the Minister for Local Government and the Minister for Women, Gabrielle Williams, on how to deliver the state Labor Government’s target of 50 percent female mayors and councillors by 2025. It+

The Australian Taxation Office is reminding local government finance managers to renew their manual authorisation in RAM before their 12-month expiry date. If you are the government representative (the primary person) that originally linked your local government agency’s ABN in Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM) last year, please note that your authorisation is valid for up+

Local governments are being reminded of federal regulations regarding the use (and misuse) of the word “Anzac” in the lead-up to this year’s Anzac Day. The Commonwealth’s “Protection of Word ‘Anzac’ Regulations (1921) were put in place to ensure the word was treated with dignity and respect; they outline how, where, and when the word+

A Melbourne consultancy firm will lead a review of the National Environment Protection (Used Packaging Materials) Measure 2011 and the Australian Packaging Covenant. A consultation paper and online survey have been prepared to seek stakeholder feedback on: The strengths and limitations of the operation of the UPM NEPM and the Covenant; The appropriateness of the+

The CSIRO and the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC) will develop a nationally consistent bushfire modelling and prediction capability. The bushfire simulation tool will be developed from the CSIRO’s “Spark” fire prediction platform, and will open the way for “bushfire prediction opportunities across borders and over different landscapes”. The science agency says+

The Federal Government is planning to host a national roundtable on textile waste as part of its broader efforts to promote product stewardship. It is also investing $350,000 in Circular Threads – a new group to be led by the Australasian Circular Textile Association (ACTA) – to help reduce textile waste, particularly unwanted uniforms and+

A statewide waste levy will be introduced in Tasmania on 1 November, with the proceeds being invested back into waste management. The levy, which will start at $20 a tonne and rise to $60 a tonne after four years, will be collected by Environment Protection Authority Tasmania and managed by a new body, the Tasmanian+

The West Australian shires of Carnarvon, Upper Gascoyne and Derby-West Kimberley will get disaster assistance funding after last week’s heavy rain. A tropical low dumped up to 200mm of rain along the WA coast causing widespread damage to roads, including the North West Coastal Highway. Affected communities in the three shires will be eligible to+

More fenced areas are needed to protect native wildlife from rampant predation by feral or stray cats, a federal parliamentary inquiry has advised. Domestic and feral cats are killing three billion native animals yearly, a “horrifying” statistic that equates to a kill rate of more than 1100 per cat per year, inquiry chairman Ted O’Brien+

A three-month trial at the Bathurst Regional Council to reduce clothing going into landfill has collected 1.6 tonnes of used textiles in just one month. In what is believed to be a first for regional NSW, the council partnered with Textile Recyclers Australia (TRA) for the trial, with TRA supplying bins to be set up+

Four new stories looking at the unique role the arts can play in the disaster management process have been made available as podcasts. In Season 2 of the “Creative Responders” podcasts, listeners will hear from council teams and participating artists as they examine what a community-led project looks like; why it is essential to centre+

South Australia’s new planning and design code will go live in metropolitan areas from 19 March, the State Planning Commission said last week. From that date on, all applications lodged will be required to be assessed against the new code, which replaces 72 Development Plans. Thirty-five metropolitan and major regional councils – which together handle+

The need for improved local and national adaptation measures to limit the growing fire risk in south-eastern Australia has been reiterated in another scientific study. Published in Communications Earth and Environment, the study also says adaptation measures need to be accompanied by ambitious global climate change mitigation effects to limit further increases in fire risk.+

Disaster Recovery Payments have been declared for eligible people severely affected by bushfires burning in the Shire of Mundaring and the City of Swan. The Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment (AGDRP) provides a one-off lump sum of $1000 for eligible adults and $400 for each eligible child under the age of 16. AGDRP is available+

Federal Politicians are urging eligible community groups and organisations to finalise their funding applications for Round 6 of the Stronger Communities Program. Round 6 will provide $22.65 million to fund small capital projects in each of the country’s 151 federal electorates. For this special round, grant funding will be up to 100 percent of eligible+

The Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils has called for a review of “disproportionate” private gains flowing from publicly funded infrastructure investment in Sydney’s west.  “We have already seen examples of enormous private windfalls from the land acquisition processes at Badgerys Creek [site of Sydney’s second airport],” WSROC President Barry Calvert said in a media+

Eight new commercial projects to process West Australian plastic and tyre waste are to get $70 million in joint funding from the Commonwealth and WA state governments. They include a facility in eastern Perth that will process plastic waste into high-quality flakes that can be used to make food-grade and non-food-grade recycled resin. The new+

Trials to identify better ways of delivering voice services in regional and remote Australia via the internet will begin shortly. As part of the Commonwealth’s $2 million Alternative Voice Services Trials (AVST) Program, NBN Co and two smaller telecommunications companies, ConceroTel and Zetifi, have been selected to conduct the new trials. NBN Co will deliver+

The Australian Taxation Office is reminding local government finance managers to renew their manual authorisation in RAM before their 12-month expiry date. Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM) is an authorisation service that allows you to act on behalf of a business online when linked with myGovID. To renew, the ATO says to log in to RAM+

Accessible Arts has developed a new workshop suitable for arts and cultural organisations in the local government sector. The arts and disability organisation says this would be suitable for councils looking to improve their online engagement with people with disabilities. The 90-minute online events workshop, developed with the support of the Australia Council for the+

Seven Queensland councils will share $8.9 million of additional funding for a range of projects to help drive economic recovery in communities impacted by last year’s bushfires. They include the Bundaberg Regional Council, Gympie Regional Council, Scenic Rim Regional Council, Somerset Regional Council, Southern Downs Regional Council, Sunshine Coast Regional Council, and the Toowoomba Regional+

The signing of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance half a century ago is being celebrated on World Wetlands Day on 2 February. On that date in 1971, an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands was signed into being in Ramsar, an Iranian city on the shores of the Caspian+

Local government should be supported to increase active transport options to help bolster Melbourne’s recovery from Covid-19, the state’s infrastructure adviser says. With the pandemic having led to more congested roads and crowded public transport in the city, Infrastructure Victoria says the state government is having to grapple with competing objectives such as transmission risk,+

Regional communities can take years to recover economically from natural disasters with the impacts often spilling over to nearby regions. A report released by SGS Economics & Planning and Suncorp Insurance highlights the importance of rapid insurance payments and the need to protect regions from future disasters. The report, Economic Recovery after Disaster Strikes Volume+

The Charles Darwin University Education and Community Precinct is scheduled to completed by 2024, the first Annual Progress Report on the Darwin City Deal shows. Work on the $250 million precinct, which is expected to attract more international students to Darwin and inject about $600 million into the local economy, began in October. The Annual+

Former Katherine Mayor Fay Miller was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to local government, tourism, and the community of Katherine on Australia Day. She was one of several elected and non-elected officials recognised in the Australia Day Honours for their services to local government. Ms Miller, originally from+

The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation says “significant action across the supply chain” is needed for Australia to meet the 2025 National Packaging Targets. In a new report on the state of packaging in Australia and progress towards the 2025 targets, APCO said the volume of plastic “placed on market” in 2018-19 had declined by six+

The National Cities Performance Framework (NCPF) is being reviewed for the first time since its 2017 launch with a view to updating liveability indicators. The framework tracks the performance of 21 of Australia’s largest cities across key measures such as jobs, housing, and liveability – thereby enabling governments, industries and communities to better target, monitor+

Australia now has a nationally consistent approach to emergency warnings for bushfire, flood, storm, cyclone, extreme heat, and severe weather hazards. The Australian Warning System was a recommendation of last year’s Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements and was introduced in December. Developed with input from emergency services and hazard agencies nationwide, the new+

Nearly 100km of regional roads in Western Australia will be upgraded throughout 2020-21 under the Wheatbelt Secondary Freight Network (WSFN) program. Some $20 million is being invested in the second tranche of upgrades under the WSFN program, established in 2020 to increase freight efficiency and productivity, reduce vehicle-operating cost and improve road safety along strategic+

Under-insurance in northern Australia is a significant and growing problem, with around 40 per cent of properties in northern WA carrying no cover whatever. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, rates of non-insurance in the Northern Territory are 26 percent, and in North Queensland 17 percent. In the final report from its Northern+