Farewell and thank you

This is my final update before handing over to your next ALGA President later this month.

As you may know, I am leaving local government after 12 rewarding and enjoyable years, including four years as national President.

It has been a tremendous privilege to represent our communities to the Federal Government, and working together, we have achieved many advocacy highlights and positive funding outcomes to improve the liveability and sustainability of our communities.

Importantly, since 2020 we have secured an estimated $7.22 billion in additional federal funding our councils can access, including the ongoing indexation to FA Grants, $500 million to support housing growth, a doubling of Roads to Recovery funding, $200 million per year for disaster mitigation and $100 million for climate action and emissions reduction.

It was a significant win that the Government continued to increase Financial Assistance Grants in line with the legislated indexation formula.  The cumulative impact of this increase across four years was an additional $1.72 billion in untied federal funding to councils compared to if the FA Grants indexation had been frozen.

Also, in addition to participating in National Cabinet and the Council on Federal Financial Relations, it has been an honour to represent local government on a wide range of Ministerial Councils and Forums.  Over the last four years ALGA has attended:

• Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council
• Building Ministers Meeting
• Road Safety Ministers Meeting
• Water Ministers Meeting
• Infrastructure and Transport Ministers Meeting
• Local Government Ministers Forum
• National Emergency Management Ministers Meeting
• Joint Council on Closing the Gap
• Planning Ministers Meeting
• Environment Ministers Meeting
• Cultural Ministers Meeting
• Food Ministers Meeting
• Ending Plastic Wate External Advisory Group Meeting
• Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy Oceania Steering Committee
• Ministerial Migration Roundtable
• Drought Ministers Roundtable
• Commemorative Grants Advisory Committee
• Regional Banking Taskforce
• Indigenous Affairs Ministers Meeting.

But there’s still so much to do, and I know you will continue to support ALGA, as well as your state and territory associations, as they continue to advocate for more sustainable funding for our communities.

Finally, as I close this amazing and memorable chapter of my career, I sincerely thank all of you for your outstanding support.

It’s rare you get to leave on top in politics, and I especially thank ALGA’s Board and state and territory association members for your unwavering commitment and dedication to making our cities, towns and regions better and more vibrant places to live, work and visit.

Disaster Ready Fund

Our advocacy in the lead up to the previous Federal election delivered a new $200 million per year Disaster Ready Fund, and it was fantastic to see 121 local government-based projects supported through the second round of this funding announced recently.  The full list of successful projects is available here.

This funding will support projects worth more than $310 million, which collectively will significantly improve our nation’s disaster preparedness.

As the human and financial costs of disaster recovery continue to grow, it’s vital we prioritise local mitigation projects that will better safeguard our communities.

Annual conferences

Finally, I was delighted to speak one last time at the Local Government Association of Tasmania’s annual conference in Hobart last week, and I sincerely thank LGAT President Mayor Mick Tucker for the invitation.

I’m also looking forward to presenting to Victorian councils at the MAV annual conference in Melbourne on Thursday and thank President Councillor David Clark for hosting me.

National Housing Summit

I was delighted to speak at our inaugural National Local Government Housing Summit in Adelaide on 16 August, which attracted around 150 mayors, shire presidents, councillors and staff from across the country.

This summit at Adelaide Town Hall focused on the positive role local government can play to facilitate more affordable housing and help deliver on Australia’s housing target of 1.2 million homes over the next five years.

A big thanks to LGA SA for supporting our first housing summit, and to the City of Adelaide for hosting us in their beautiful Town Hall.

At the event, we heard preliminary research from Equity Economics which explored some of the housing challenges for local government.

I’m proud to represent local governments on a wide range of Ministerial Councils and Forums, but unfortunately the National Housing and Homelessness Ministerial Council is not one of them.  As the third tier of government we have an important role to play addressing our country’s affordable housing crisis and we will continue to advocate for a seat at the table.

Meeting new Ministers

Following the recent federal Ministerial reshuffle, I was delighted to meet several newly-appointed Ministers at Parliament House on 14 August.

I met with Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness Clare O’Neil to discuss how local government can help the Government reach it’s housing target, and also spoke with new Federal Minister for Emergency Management and Cities Senator Jenny McAllister.

During the visit, I also met with our Minister for Local Government Kristy McBain to discuss a range of issues affecting councils including financial sustainability.

We look forward to working with Minister O’Neil and McAllister in their new roles, and also acknowledge the great work and support for councils from previous Housing and Emergency Management Ministers Julie Collins and Senator Murray Watt.

2024 Roads Congress

Finally, we’ve already had strong interest in our 2024 National Local Roads, Transport & Infrastructure Congress, and I’m delighted to reveal our program outline.

This year’s event will be held in Margaret River in Western Australia from 3-4 December, and registrations are now open.

ALGA News attended the launch of the National Drowning Report 2024, by Assistant Federal Minister Matt Thistlethwaite (pictured), on 20 August at Parliament House in Canberra, which found there were 323 drowning deaths over the past year.

While some progress has been made including for children aged under five, the National Drowning Report 2024 showed a 16% increase in drownings on the 10-year average.  Drowning deaths for children 5-14 increased 30 per cent and for people over 65 increased 26 per cent.

This increase is an issue of concern for all levels of government, including councils.

As a member of the Australian Water Safety Council, ALGA works closely with Royal Life Saving Australia and Surf Life Saving Australia to improve water safety and drowning prevention across Australia.

We are committed to working with all organisations and partners to improve water safety and to help reduce drowning deaths in Australia, especially around waterways and pools managed by local government.

Win! Regional airlines roundtable

In an advocacy win, we worked with the Federal Government last week to organise a roundtable for regional councils affected by Rex Airlines entering voluntary administration.

Hosted by Federal Minister for Local Government Kristy McBain and attended by 50 council leaders, the virtual briefing was secured following ALGA’s call for strong action by the Government to ensure regional communities remain connected and accessible following the airline’s collapse.

The forum was an opportunity for us to voice our concerns about the loss of regional aviation services, and the support we need to facilitate and continue regular flights into our communities.

About 200 councils run and operate airports and aerodromes across Australia, and we will continue to work closely with the Government to protect and support our rural and regional communities at risk.

National Housing Summit research

We are looking forward to releasing important new research this Friday at our inaugural National Local Government Housing Summit in Adelaide.

Developed by Equity Economics, the research will highlight the opportunities for us to play a larger and more effective role in delivering on Australia’s ambitious housing targets.

Tickets are still available for the event at Adelaide Town Hall, supported by LGA SA, which will also showcase the wonderful work your councils are doing in this area.  View the draft program.

National General Assembly resolutions

Finally, a huge thank you to all councils that submitted motions to our 2024 NGA in Canberra last month.

Together, we considered a record 167 motions, which covered everything from local government financial sustainability to housing and emergency management.

I’m delighted that all of these NGA resolutions will be provided to the relevant federal Ministers for their consideration.

You can download the full list of resolutions here.

There needs to be “transformational change” in Australia’s approach to disaster mitigation funding and building resilient communities, a disaster management session in Canberra was told on 6 August.

ALGA News attended the ANU Disaster Solutions Update 2024, which heard from a range of experts, including National Emergency Management Agency Coordinator-General Brendan Moon, Federal Minister for Financial Service Stephen Jones and Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) CEO Andrew Hall.

The main focus of the one-day seminar was on the latest research and innovative solutions in disaster finance, as well as the key role of communities, government, including local government, and the private sector.

Addressing the topic of ‘funding a resilient Australia’, Mr Moon highlighted the importance of local governments in rebuilding stronger communities, and the need for funding to undertake large mitigation projects.  Mr Moon said there also needs to be more capacity to build “big mitigation” infrastructure, which needs a “transformational approach”.

Speaking about ‘closing the insurance protection gap’, Mr Hall said Australia faced similar challenges to other modern economies in terms of the growing cost of insurance and premiums.  He highlighted ICA’s research showing 1 in 12 properties have some level of flood risk in Australia. Of these, about 230,000 properties were at risk of flooding every year.

About 5.6 million homes are at risk of bushfire in Australia, according to the ICA, and the estimated cost of rebuilding homes is 27 per cent higher than before the start of Covid pandemic.

A key component of every National General Assembly (NGA) of Local Government is the motions submitted by participating councils for debate and discussion, identifying important issues to the communities they represent.

Local governments at the 2024 NGA considered more than 160 motions, all of which called for some form of action from the Federal Government, such as amending existing Commonwealth policies or funding programs, or developing new policies or programs to meet emerging needs.

Resolutions passed by delegates at the 2024 NGA can be downloaded here.

National Housing Summit

We are less than three weeks away from our inaugural National Local Government Housing Summit.

This summit will be held at Adelaide Town Hall on Friday 16 August, and the event is an opportunity for us to follow up and expand on discussions we had around affordable housing at our NGA in Canberra earlier this month.

We will also launch new housing research from Equity Economics, and showcase the fantastic and innovative work your councils are doing in this area.

A draft program is now available, which includes a networking reception hosted by Adelaide Lord Mayor Dr Jane Lomax-Smith on 15 August.

Registrations are now open – I hope to see you there!

Energy transition

I was delighted to speak to The Guardian recently about the importance of engaging local government in the planning of renewable energy projects and infrastructure.

Our energy and housing transitions must be carefully managed to ensure communities are supported with housing and infrastructure along the way, with local governments at the centre of this planning.

Importantly, councils have a key role to play in helping deliver on Australia’s emissions reduction and net zero targets, and it’s encouraging around 80 per cent of local governments have already set or are investigating emissions reduction targets.

Energy transition is an important topic for so many of our communities and it’s an honour to represent you on the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council.

The Council last met on 19 July and you can read the Communique.

Ministerial councils

A key role for ALGA is to represent the voice of local government on the many Ministerial councils.

In the past month, representatives from the ALGA Board attended several key Ministerial councils, including the Environment Ministers’ Meeting, Building Ministers’ Meeting, Water Ministers’ Meeting and the Ministerial Migration Roundtable.

ALGA has engaged Equity Economics to undertake research into the support Australia’s local governments need to help increase affordable housing supply.

This research will be launched at the National Local Government Housing Summit in Adelaide on 16 August.

To inform the research, a short survey has been developed on the barriers councils face in housing development.

The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete and closes at 5pm (AEST) on Friday 3 August 2024. Individual survey responses will not be made public or identifiable.

If you need assistance with the survey, please email alice.kemble@equityeconomics.com.au.