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  • A processing plant using biotechnology to recover valuable metals from electronic waste is set to be built in Sydney’s western suburbs. The plant in Smithfield will be operated by Mint Innovation, a New Zealand start-up that recently reached a property deal with the Cumberland City Council. Mint uses patented bioprocessing technology involving a combination of+

  • The Federal Government will invest $1 million in funding to support product stewardship efforts to reduce clothing textiles waste. The funding will be disbursed through a new grant round under the National Product Stewardship Investment Fund. The announcement came at last month’s inaugural National Roundtable on Clothing Textile Waste held at Parliament House in Canberra+

  • 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+

  • Local governments employ a higher proportion of Indigenous Australians than other government sectors – 4.5 percent versus about 2.3 percent for the state, territory, and federal governments. Councils are at ground zero in facilitating and growing local economies (and jobs), so it is not surprising we should be leading the way in improving employment outcomes+

  • Australia Post’s 2021 Community Grants program funding locally-led and delivered mental health and wellbeing projects is now accepting applications. Not-for-profit organisations can apply for up to $10,000 for projects that “help build connections between individuals and their community and that encourage open and positive conversations around mental health”. Australia Post Chief Marketing Officer Amber Collins+

  • The Australian Tax Office is advising local governments that myGOvid will expire on a specific device if it hasn’t been used for an extended period. This is a mechanism designed to enhance online security and identity protection. Many local councils have a myGovID identity to access a wide range of government online services, including Services+

  • Community-based projects in 27 towns across Australia are to share in over $1 million provided through the Tackling Tough Times Together (TTTG) program. They include providing a piano for the local choir and wider community in Kempsey (NSW), installing children’s play equipment in Texas (Qld), and undertaking building repairs at Milang Museum in SA. Applications+

  • A community program to increase resilience in one of NSW’s most flood-exposed areas has been recognised by Floodplain Management Australia. The Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley Community Resilience Program was awarded FMA’s Flood Risk Management Project of the Year Award on 31 May. Prepared by the NSW State Emergency Service and Infrastructure NSW, the program includes 19 projects+

  • TerraCycle is suggesting local councils consider including its free recycling programs in their waste management strategies.  The international recycling company (based in the US) already has “community collection hubs” in retail stores, supermarkets, schools and offices, and wants to make collection points for difficult-to-recycle items made more accessible to the public. Over the past 12+

  • The levy funding the Paintback product stewardship scheme will continue until 18 June 2031 after a ruling last month by the national competition watchdog. The levy on the wholesale sale of certain architectural and design paints will remain unchanged at 15c per litre levy (plus GST), the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission confirmed last month.+

  • A prototype website providing information about traffic volumes, congestion, road condition, and rest area usage has gone live. As well as supporting the day-to-day operations of the transport industry, and providing enhanced freight data across all supply chains, the National Freight Data Hub will enable a data-driven approach for future strategic planning and investment. Deputy+

  • The current accommodation shortage in many regional towns and cities will take time to reverse, the Regional Australia Institute has said. Twenty regions ranging from Port Hedland to Ballina and Townsville to Burnie have residential vacancy rates of 0.5 percent or lower, a situation that threatens to delay work on infrastructure projects aimed at bolstering+

  • Luke Hartsuyker will chair an independent review into the state of telecommunications services in regional, rural and remote Australia. Mr Hartsuyker, pictured, is a former Member for the Federal seat of Cowper in NSW, and will be joined on the review committee by Kristy Sparrow, Sue Middleton, Hugh Bradlow, and Michael Cosgrave. Announcing the appointments+

  • I travelled to Parliament House in Canberra this week for talks with senior Morrison Government Ministers Michael McCormack and Mark Coulton and with senior Opposition figures and crossbench MPs. I thanked Ministers McCormack and Coulton for listening to our advocacy around leveraging the potential of local government to drive a locally-led recovery. My discussions with+

  • Funding of $39.8 million has been announced for projects under the Women’s Leadership and Development Program (WLDP). The money will go toward supporting a variety of opportunities intended to “break down work barriers and enable women to advance in their chosen careers or professsion”. Five key areas, including job creation, economic security, workforce participation, leadership,+

  • A further $12.6 million is being provided by the Federal Government to expand the Safe Places Emergency Accommodation Program. The funding will allow for the renovation, building or purchase of accommodation to support women and children experiencing family and domestic violence in Cairns and Logan-Beaudesert in Queensland, and Albany, West Pilbara, and the Goldfields in+

  • The City of Melbourne’s response to “significant transport challenges” in the CBD has been recognised with a major planning award. The council’s Transport Strategy 2030 received the Best Planning Ideas – Large Projects award at the 2021 National Awards for Planning Excellence convened by the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA). Judges commended the city for+

  • The national Covid-19 vaccination program for residents in aged care facilities is nearly complete, and the focus is now shifting to aged care workers. The Federal Department of Health has advised that aged care workers are able to get their Covid-19 vaccination now, in line with medical advice. Aged care workers under 50 years will+

  • Future places of refuge for threatened species will set up and protected under a new biodiversity blueprint unveiled last week. The Threatened Species Strategy 2021-31 will also look at “assisted colonisation” for populations whose local environments are impacted by changing climate, and will pursue a coordinated approach to culling feral pest animals and weeds that+

  • First-round applications for a share of $4.5 million being offered under the Networks to Build Drought Resilience program opened this week. The program is part of the Commonwealth’s $5 billion Future Drought Fund and is intended to support the community organisations, networks, and infrastructure that help people and communities prepare for, and survive, drought. The+

  • Six new Bureau of Meteorology staff will be deployed to Townsville, where the Australian Climate Service (ACS) is being based. Announcing the ACS’s home, Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the new staff (supported by the BOM’s Brisbane office) will provide 24/7 on-ground support to Emergency Management Australia, local disaster management groups, and Queensland Fire+

  • The Federal Government has called for the states and territories to commit to future biosecurity funding at or above 2016-17 levels in real terms. Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud made the call at this week’s release of Commonwealth Biosecurity 2030, which sets the future direction for Australia’s biosecurity system. “Commonwealth Biosecurity 2030 is our plan+

  • The Federal Government is calling for public input into creating a regional data hub to better inform local leaders and regional communities. The proposed hub will “improve the evidence base for regional communities, local leaders, industry and all levels of government by bringing together key economic, demographic and socio-economic data to provide easy access to+

  • A new Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Grants program to support work not covered by other funding programs is expected to open soon. The $280 million program was first announced in April, having been enabled by a lower-than-expected take-up of programs under the $2 billion National Bushfire Recovery Fund. The new grants will be focused on+

  • The City of Sydney Council wants to include energy targets in development applications in a bid to make new buildings more energy efficient. Under a proposal now before the NSW state government, development applications for new office buildings, hotels and shopping centres, and major redevelopments of existing buildings will have to comply with minimum energy+

  • Victorian councils may face “difficult” financial decisions in coming years if revenue growth does not resume post-Covid-19. The warning is contained an Essential Services Commission report on the impact of rate capping on local councils. The Local council outcomes report 2021 found that the sector’s financial health remained strong in general, “putting it in a+

  • Federal Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud has reignited his stoush with Telstra over its regional telecommunications services. In February, Mr Littleproud accused the telco of abandoning its rural customers, particularly in his central Queensland electorate of Maranoa. This week, in an opinion article published in the Weekly Times, Mr Littleproud again said Telstra had “given+

  • Your ALGA has a new chief executive officer, Matt Pinnegar – who takes up his new role when the National General Assembly of Local Government gets underway next month. Many of you probably already know Matt, who is the current CEO of the Local Government Association of South Australia (LGASA). Matt has seen the LGASA+

  • A webinar exploring the UN-recognised carbon removal technology of biochar using pyrolysis and gasification is being held next week. Convened by the ANZ Biochar Industry Group (ANZBIG), the webinar will be of interest to local councils that want to make their biochar project more viable through voluntary carbon removal credits. The International Carbon Drawdown in+

  • Councils are being encouraged to nominate their most effective crime mitigation projects for the Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards. Projects or initiatives that reduce violence and other types of crime in the community are all eligible to be nominated for the awards. They can relate to specific groups such as rural and remote communities,+

  • A new guide to help local government infrastructure managers choose suitably climate-resilient building materials has been published. Though aimed primarily at NSW local governments and developers, the guide will have national application as well, according to Institution of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) CEO David Jenkins. The Climate Resilience Design Guide is intended to assist+

  • Government intervention to help address labour shortages and build resilience will help struggling Victorian tourism destinations, a new report says. The Black Summer Bushfires and the coronavirus pandemic wiped $19.5 billion in visitor spending from the Victoria economy, the report found, with two-thirds of tourism operators losing between 75-100 percent of their income. Lead researcher+

  • Regional Drought Resilience Planning programs financed by the Future Drought Fund have been launched in NSW, Queensland, South Australia, and the ACT. These will bring together local governments, regional organisations, communities, and industry to prepare for future drought risks by developing regional drought resilience plans. Based on the premise that no two regions are the+

  • Further assistance has been activated under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements for Western Australia communities impacted by Tropical Cyclone Seroja. Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements had already been activated in the immediate aftermath of Seroja, but Category C and Category D measures have now been added. This assistance will fund a clean-up program and community+

  • Road transport and infrastructure funding will decrease in real terms from 2021-22 to 2024-25 with the end of the $3 billion Road Safety program in sight. The Australian Automobile Association (AAA) says its analysis of the 2021-22 Budget papers shows the Government is predicting a “decrease of 9.7 percent in real terms” in road transport+

  • National Road Safety Week 2021 was launched in Adelaide this week at an event attended by Safer Australian Roads and Highway (SARAH) Group founder Peter Fraser. SARAH partners with road safety organisations and governments in efforts to reduce road trauma, and founded National Road Safety Week in 2013 – a year after Mr Fraser’s daughter+

  • Three joint council waste management authorities in Adelaide will get about $15 million in federal funding to invest in new recycling projects. The Northern Adelaide Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) will get $7.92 million to put towards a $12 million paper and cardboard beneficiation plant in Edinburgh able to process more than 40,000 tonnes of fibre+

  • The Morrison Government’s free-spending Budget marks a major departure from previous economic policy, but one that’s right for the times, says Danielle Wood. “I call it the ‘jump-start the economy strategy’,” the Grattan Institute CEO said this week. “Push hard to try and ignite wage growth, get people into jobs, and hopefully the momentum builds+

  • Matt Pinnegar has been appointed the next chief executive officer of the Australian Local Government Association, succeeding retiring CEO Adrian Beresford-Wylie. Mr Pinnegar is currently CEO of the Local Government Association of South Australia (LGASA). Before taking the helm at LGASA in 2015, Mr Pinnegar was the external affairs manager for BP in South Australia+

  • West Australian councils have raised concerns about more recyclables ending up in landfill when a federal export ban on some waste plastics comes into force in July. The state’s biggest recycling plant, operated by Cleanaway in suburban Guildford, burned down in late 2019 and is scheduled to re-open just days before stage one of the+

  • A new organisation to “lead efforts” to eliminate plastic in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands was launched in Sydney this week. The ANZPAC Plastics Pact comprises 60 founding members from across the plastics supply chain, including corporations, packaging manufacturers and retailers, resource recovery leaders, governments, and NGOs. Its members have pledged to work+

  • It was wonderful to see strong bipartisan backing for local government’s ability to create jobs and lead economic recovery this week, as part of the Federal Budget and the Opposition Leader’s Budget in Reply speech. The direct wins for local government from the Morrison Government’s third Budget included: $1 billion in new funding to extend+

  • Public consultations on the development of the 10-year National Children’s Education and Care Workforce Strategy (2021-30) are now open. And the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) is encouraging anyone working in early childhood to: read the consultation document; and provide feedback through an online survey. Feedback will support the development of the+

  • A new safety campaign has been launched to reduce the number of dangerously loaded trucks operating on NSW regional roads. The Load Restraint Public Education Campaign was initiated by the Parkes, Forbes, and Lachlan Shire Councils and includes new “how-to” load restraint videos and factsheets, a social media awareness campaign, and a series of load+

  • The City of Darwin council has taken out the top award at this year’s Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) National Awards for Excellence in Technology. The city won the Australian Achievement of the Year Category (and the Smart City Achievement of the Year category) for its myDarwin Support Local Program. This discount voucher program, launched+

  • The Australian Building Codes Board is inviting public comment on the development of the 2022 edition of the National Construction Code.  Some of the more significant amendments developed for the next edition of the NCC, and covered in this first of a two-stage release of content for public comment, include: Draft provisions relating to accessible+

  • The MyGov and MyHealth government portals will receive $500 million enhancements under the Federal Government’s $1.2 billion digital economy strategy. Tuesday’s Federal Budget contained more detail about the strategy, including a $200 million myGov overhaul and a $302 million investment in My Health Record and the GovPass digital identity initiative. More than $50 million will+

  • Local governments are being encouraged to partner with the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) to improve cyber resilience across the national economy. The ACSC is the lead Commonwealth agency on efforts to enhance national cybersecurity. In 2020, the centre’s ReportCyber online portal received around 57,000 cybercrime reports with losses of almost $357 million, with reports+

  • The regions have been major winners from this week’s Federal Budget with significant initiatives aimed at sharpening their appeal as places to live and work. Issues of disaster resilience and water security in regional areas have also been addressed with new money, including $50 million in co-funding for 22 projects under the National Flood Mitigation+

  • Rockhampton Regional Council’s bid to lure Alliance Airlines to its regional airport has been boosted with a $25 million Community Development Program grant. Tuesday’s Federal Budget committed $25 million (under the Community Development Grants Program) towards the construction of a maintenance repair and overhaul facility at Rockhampton airport for Alliance’s use, a move which could+