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ALP’s Local Government Plan is Welcome Progress

• Labor acknowledges financial sustainability challenges facing local governments
• Opposition matches Government commitments on Roads to Recovery, Bridges funding
• $260m promised for cycle paths can spur healthier local communities

The President of the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA), Mayor David O’Loughlin, has welcomed the Australian Labor Party’s commitments under the Plan for Local Government issued by the Opposition today.

ALGA outlined its Federal Election priories in its election document All Politics is Local, issued in September last year, well in advance of the election.

It identified 12 priorities including restoring funding assistance to local government, improving the safety of local roads, national leadership on waste and recycling, initiatives to address climate change, as well as greater commitment to Indigenous well-being.

In its Plan, the ALP has matched the Government’s funding commitments to Roads to Recovery, Bridges Renewal community infrastructure, regional telecommunications and Financial Assistance Grants, but has gone further in its commitment to provide $260m in funding for cycle paths.

“The infrastructure commitments by the ALP will reassure councils that the increases in base level funding for essential programs such as Roads to Recovery and Bridges Renewal announced in the Budget will be met,” Mayor O’Loughlin said.

“This certainty is vital to councils’ budgeting processes”.

ALGA has also welcomed the commitment to strengthen Australia’s circular economy by establishing a National Waste Commission and investing $60m in a national recycling fund.

“Waste and recycling has emerged as a major challenge facing all councils and the ALP commitment to greater national leadership is something the local government sector and communities have been crying out for.”

ALGA is also pleased by the ALP’s promise of $62m for climate adaption and coastal rehabilitation. The Association has called for a program to support communities with their climate change responses.

Mayor O’Loughlin also responded positively to the funding commitment to help to address housing and employment issues in Indigenous communities.

“ALGA has called for both parties to continue providing funding for the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing,” he said.

“While neither party has fully committed to that need, the ALP has gone further than the Coalition in providing funding for the NT, Queensland, WA and South Australia”.

The ALP’s Plan also contained some positive recognition of the financial sustainability challenges local governments have faced for more than two decades.

Since 1996 the level of funding assistance provided to local government by the Commonwealth government through the Financial Assistance Grants has fallen to just 0.55% of Commonwealth Taxation revenue from 1%.

At the same time, local governments have been subject to cost-shifting and rate-capping by state governments.

Labor has committed to working with local, state and territory government with the aim of reaching an agreement on the financial sustainability of local government.

“While both major parties have yet to respond to ALGA’s call to provide a fairer level of funding to local communities through the restoration of Financial Assistance Grants funding, the ALP’s commitment to seek an agreement across the three levels of government to address local governments’ financial sustainability is progress,” Mayor O’Loughlin said.

Media enquiries:
Paris Lord, Director Public Affairs, Australian Local Government Association (ALGA), 0418 415 649, 02 6122 9434, paris.lord@alga.ans.au

Available for interview:
Mayor David O’Loughlin, President Australian Local Government Association (high resolution head shot available at this Dropbox link)

Posted 15 May, 2019

Useful Links

ALGA Election Document

Federal Election – 36 Days to go!

Prime Minister Scott Morrison visited Government House early yesterday morning to ask Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove to trigger an election to be held on 18 May 2019. The 45th Parliament was suspended and Parliament dissolved. This cancelled the Senate Estimates hearings that were due to commence at 9am.

The 2019 election will see all MPs in the House of Representatives and half the Senate up for re-election. By-elections since the last election and redistributions mean the Coalition notionally holds only 73 seats in the expanded 151-seat House of Representatives.

Labor notionally holds 72; the Victorian seats of Corangamite and Dunkley having been nudged onto the Labor side of the electoral pendulum by their new boundaries. It creates the unusual situation where both the Coalition and Labor need to gain seats if they want to form government.

This is an election where the key issues that may decide the result are tax policy, climate change, asylum seekers, health, education, national security and industrial relations.

Climate change is an issue that is of critical importance to local government. ALGA has been advocating for a climate change partnership fund of $200 million over four years to help communities plan for and adapt to climate change. We hope that we may see some further announcements in this area as the election campaign continues.

So far we have seen the Coalition announce in February a $2 billion injection into an Abbott-era scheme to fund a range of carbon abatement programs in mostly the land and agricultural sector and an announcement a further investment in hydro-electricity, funding the next stage of the Snowy Hydro 2.0. The Coalition is sticking with its Paris target of reducing emissions by 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030, but has no specific climate policy.

Labor has set a 45 per cent emissions reduction target, by delivering 50 per cent of power by renewables by 2030, and wants all industries to play their part, not just the electricity sector. Labor have also committed to implementing Australia’s first national electric vehicle policy, setting a national electric vehicle target of 50 per cent new car sales by 2030 and introducing vehicle emissions standards to reduce pollution and make the cost of driving a car cheaper for consumers.

It was revealed in estimates during the week that the coalition’s climate solutions package uses a target of 25 to 50 per cent of new car sales in 2030 as electric vehicles. So it appears that regardless of who wins, increased adoption of electric vehicles will occur. As highlighted in ALGA’s 2019 Local Government Roads and Transport Agenda all levels of government and industry will need to invest in the infrastructure that supports the transition to electric vehicles and fund the construction of charging stations critical to future mobility including at places of employment and in public spaces including car parks, retail outlets, fuel station forecourts.

The burden of funding this infrastructure should not fall upon local government rate payers particularly in rural and regional Australia. A government program should be considered for retrofitting of existing buildings and infrastructure. Local government procurement of electric vehicles will also play a key role in helping Australia meet its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.

Posted 12 April, 2019