ALGA News

South Australia’s single-use plastic ban began on 1 March, the first such prohibition of its kind in any Australian state or territory. Plastic single-use drinking straws, stirrers, and cutlery are now banned from sale, supply, or distribution across the state, including in supermarkets and other shops. The ban follows passage through State Parliament of legislation+

The draft National Road Safety Strategy 2021-30 has been opened up for public and stakeholder comments, with input possible until 23 March. The draft strategy – developed by the federal, state and territory governments, and the Australian Local Government Association – sets the direction of Australia’s road safety objectives, key priorities for action and road+

The Federal Government is reportedly contemplating a uniform approach to garbage collection in a bid to meet National Waste Policy Action Plan targets. Under the plan, reported in The Australian newspaper on 20 February, a national food and garden organics (FOGO) collection service would be implemented to cut greenhouse gas emissions, reduce waste volumes sent+

Disaster assistance has been extended to the local government areas of Cairns, Townsville and Pormpuraaw following ongoing impacts from ex-tropical cyclone Imogen. In all, 18 local government areas in northern and far north Queensland (including Burdekin, Burke, Cairns, Carpentaria, Cassowary Coast, Charters Towers, Cook, Croydon, Etheridge, Hinchinbrook, Kowanyama, Mareeba, Mornington, Palm Island, Pormpuraaw, Tablelands, Townsville+

Consistency of standards has emerged as a priority issue in stage two of a review of building accessibility for people with disabilities. The Disability (Access to Premises – Building) Standards 2010 are intended to ensure people living with disability have equal access to public buildings. They are also intended to ensure building certifiers, developers and+

National Bushfire Recovery Coordinator Andrew Colvin is urging local government to get behind the University of Western Australia’s “After the fires” survey. The UWA survey is studying the impact of the 2019-20 bushfires on the resilience and wellbeing of fire and emergency services personnel. “If we’re going to do more, we need to know more,”+

A global competition to identify and accelerate ambitious ideas developed by cities in response to the Covid-19 pandemic was launched last month. The 2021 Global Mayors Challenge, an initiative of Bloomberg Philanthropies, “will address the most significant challenges to emerge during the pandemic, including: economic recovery and inclusive growth; health and well-being; climate and environment;+

Councils raised 89.2 percent of their own revenue in 2016-17, with grants and subsidies making up the remaining 10.8 percent, a new national report shows. In that time, local government’s total tax revenues amounted to $17.4 billion – or 3.6 percent of all taxes raised across all spheres of government in Australia. Councils (along with+

Building resilient urban settlements in fire-vulnerable areas could set a model for how larger cities can adapt to rapid climate change, a new research paper suggests. These developments would include: Establishing more sustainable coastal centres with distributed solar power and water; and Building solar or eco-villages on the peri-urban rural fringe using community-scaled technology with+

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+

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+

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+

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 first National Emergency Management Ministers’ Meeting (NEMM) will be held this week as part of new federation governance reforms. After the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) was scrapped and replaced by National Cabinet, the Conran Review of COAG Councils and Ministerial Forums recommended that several councils be disbanded in favour of a more streamlined+

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 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 Heart Foundation has released a training resource to better acquaint planners, urban designers, and elected officials with its Healthy Active by Design (HAbD) program. The HAbD program is a guide to incorporating health and physical activity into built environment design as well as an advocacy tool for improving community health and wellbeing by considering+

Efforts to improve public transport accessibility for people with disabilities have moved ahead with the release of a Consultation Regulation Impact Statement (CRIS). The federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, and Communications CRIS contains proposed amendments intended to increase the flexibility and clarity of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport (2002) after a+

Optus, Pivotel and Telstra have been awarded grants under the final tranche of the Commonwealth’s $2 million Alternative Voice Services Trials (AVST) Program. The latest tranche of trails includes: Optus offering 15 trial services at pre-determined regional locations in NSW, Queensland and SA. It will trial fixed and mobile voice calls and offer optional broadband+

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 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 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+

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+

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+

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+

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+

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+

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+

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+

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+

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+

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+

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+

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.+

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+

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+