Forced council mergers: the genesis of the full-time local councillor?

Will party machines muscle into super councils?

15 February, 2016

Council mergers blamed for 13% by-election backlash in NSW Coalition heartland

Zimmerman sheets blame back to Baird.

7 December, 2015

Should NSW council mergers go to a vote?

And do ratepayers know what’s good for them?

22 October, 2015

Local government workers: they’re not getting any younger

Ageing workforce throws up significant problems.

17 February, 2015

ACELG guides council evaluation of service delivery

Councils will now be able to better assess how well they provide services to the community through a handy new manual from the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government.

26 June, 2014

Indigenous public sector jobs set to take a hit

ACELG cautions on regional council jobs.

2 June, 2014

Raft of cost savings reforms at risk after Budget

The Australian Centre for Excellence in Local Government has warned that an essential coordination mechanism between Canberra, the states and councils has been sacrificed in the Budget following the axing of the COAG Reform Council.

22 May, 2014

Don’t be seduced by dirty talk on debt, governments warned

Experts and engineers urge for more a mature discussion of how public borrowings for infrastructure can clear project backlogs and revitalise communities.

24 February, 2014

Training councillors to become better leaders

The Centre for Local Government at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) has lessons to offer on how elected representatives can stay well on course. The role of a councillor has always been a challenging one – balancing council rules, policies and procedures with the expectations of constituents who expect high quality service at a […]

20 January, 2014

Local governments could be 60,000 workers short

By Paul Hemsley Councils across Australia are facing an unprecedented shortfall in replacements for retiring baby boomers with the local government sector cautioning it could soon be up to 60,000 staff short unless new talent is recruited to backfill anticipated departures. Around one third of the nation’s 200,000 local government employees are now estimated to […]

5 August, 2013

Councils face national headcount

By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski Australia’s burgeoning local government sector will get its first ever official statistical snapshot through an official council workforce census covering the whole of Australia. The Australian Centre of Excellence in Local Government (ACELG) will conduct the census on council numbers to better inform funding and resource allocation decisions at […]

27 November, 2012

Moving beyond roads, rates and rubbish

Australian councils have transformed themselves beyond a narrow focus on ‘roads, rates and rubbish’ and are successfully delivering broader objectives to promote social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of communities.   Those are the findings of a new a study prepared for the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG) which argues that councils […]

17 August, 2012

Joint report measures local livability

Community livability has been the focus of a research report from the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG) and Penrith City Council. The report prepared by Net Balance titled Options for a Local Government Framework for Measuring Livability contains research finding quality of life issues can “fall beyond” the influence of councils. It […]

13 March, 2012