President's column
Councils must balance competing demands against finite resources, which is why ALGA continues to seek opportunities for improvement and advocate for councils to be adequately resourced for their tasks. Local government nationally employs about 194,000 Australians (around 10 percent of the total public sector). We own and manage non-financial assets with an estimated value of+
‘Step-change needed to improve infrastructure resilience’
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+
Cth extends gap fee waivers for Covid-affected childcare centres
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+
Canadian solution to rural GP shortage to be trialled in NSW
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.+
Shoalhaven council embarks on smart approach to recycling
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+