ALGA president Geoff Lake with Federal Minister for Local Government Anthony Albanese

By Angela Dorizas in Melbourne

The Federal Minister for Local Government Anthony Albanese today criticised the opposition for not making clear its position on constitutional recognition of local government and for being “all over the shop” on infrastructure.

His comments were made at the Local Government Constitutional Summit held in Melbourne.

When asked whether he trusted the assurances made by Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull to be “open-minded” on constitutional recognition, Mr Albanese said the Coalition had already back-flipped on previous commitments.

“Earlier this year the National Party leader Warren Truss, who’s addressing this conference this afternoon, said that he supported constitutional recognition,” Mr Albanese told Government News.

“Yesterday, Malcolm Turnbull, the leader of the opposition, came to this conference and couldn’t say what the Coalition’s position was on it.

“The problem with the Coalition is that they don’t know what they stand for. They just know what they’re against and the default position that they go back to each and every time is Opposition.”

Mr Albanese pointed to the Coalition’s position on the Rudd Government’s $300 million regional and local community infrastructure program as an example.

“They oppose the community infrastructure program that we allocated $300 million for at the Australian Council of Local Government, even though they don’t have an alternative,” he said.

“This is an opposition that seems to be characterised by not standing for anything and by playing politics with everything.  I’d be concerned that they seem to have reversed the previous support that was indicated earlier this year for local government recognition in the constitution.”

Mr Albanese called on the opposition to be “constructive” in the constitutional recognition debate.

“They had 12 years in government to think about it, they now have a government that’s committed to constitutional recognition and working with local government on achieving that,” he said.

The Shadow Minister for Local Government, Warren Truss, said he was "not quite sure" what Mr Albanese was referring to when he accused the Coalition of back-flipping on the issue.

"If you’re going back to 1988, well I guess a fair bit of water has passed under the bridge since that time and I’m sure there would not be too many people around from 1988 who could be accused of a change of position," Mr Truss told Government News.

"The 1988 referendum did make an impact on people. It was a very, very inglorious result and for that reason, to win support next time around the question and the atmospherics are going to have to be much better."

Despite offering his personal support for constitutional recognition, Mr Truss could not guarantee the support of the Nationals and Liberals.

He said the Coalition was "philosophically attracted to the idea" but needed to see the question that would be put to the Australian people before making a decision.

Mr Truss rejected Mr Albanese’s claim that the Coalition opposed the Rudd Government’s $300 million regional and local community infrastructure program.

"I don’t know what led him to make such a statement," he said.

"We have indicated that we would have dealt with issues of the response to the economic crisis differently from what Labor has, but to say that we were opposed to grants to councils is I think a very, very, very long bow.

"I invite him to provide any evidence that I or for that matter anybody else opposed grants to councils for community work."

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