President’s Update – 3 February 2025

This week I’m meeting with Ministers, Shadow Ministers and Independents in Canberra ahead of the upcoming federal election.

A key focus of these discussions will be on the priorities outlined in our pre-Federal Budget submission lodged with Treasury last week.

Our submission seeks five key streams of additional formula-based funding for councils, including:

  • $1.1 billion per year for enabling infrastructure to unlock housing supply
  • $500 million per year for community infrastructure
  • $600 million per year for safer local roads
  • $900 million per year for increased local government emergency management capability and capacity, and
  • $400 million per year for climate adaptation.

We are asking for these funds to be distributed across all councils on a formula basis, similar to the way Financial Assistance Grants and Roads to Recovery funding have been provided over many years.

This will empower local governments to have longer-term certainty on budgets and plan for the future needs of our communities. For too long, we have been stuck in a grant round cycle and local governments need to be supported to deliver local solutions to national priorities.

Disaster Ready Fund round three

We welcomed the third round of the Disaster Ready Fund (DRF) recently announced by the Federal Government to reduce risk and build resilience in local communities.

The first two rounds of the DRF were heavily oversubscribed, and we’re expecting strong interest in this latest $200 million in funding.

We’ve consistently advocated for more flexibility around co-contributions to allow smaller councils and communities to access the DRF and we’re delighted this has been reflected in the round three guidelines.

It was also encouraging to see greater emphasis on infrastructure to help us build the seawalls, levees and culverts we need to better protect our communities.

I urge all councils with shovel-ready mitigation and resilience projects to submit applications before 2 April 2025.

Book now: Tech Leadership Summit

A reminder to secure your tickets for the Local Government Tech Leadership Summit in Sydney on 12 March.

This not-to-be-missed event at the Sheraton Sydney Hyde Park Hotel will highlight local governments embracing technological change and include the launch of new research about cyber security.

The summit will also feature a keynote presentation by futurist and Global Head of Digital Transformation at Norton Rose Fulbright Nick Abrahams, highlighting the changing tech landscape and opportunities for local government innovation.

2025 NGA 2025

Finally, you can register now for the 2025 National General Assembly, incorporating the Regional Forum, in Canberra from 24-27 June, with a theme of ‘National Priorities Need Local Solutions’.

The 2025 NGA 2025 will provide a great opportunity to help shape a newly-elected government or refocus a returned government on the needs of councils across Australia.

You can also lodge your council’s 2025 NGA motions on our website until 31 March.