By Julian Bajkowski Councils across Australia are seeking a refund from Canberra for more than $3 million in ratepayers money they spent to promote the ‘yes’ case for a referendum on the Constitutional recognition of local government that was scrapped alongside the announcement of a new federal poll date. The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) […]
19 August, 2013
By Julian Bajkowski Australian councils burned by toxic investments in collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) from collapsed bank Lehman Bros. have escalated their legal action and will try and rope-in ratings agency Standard & Poors in their bid to recover losses of around $200 million. Litigation funder IMF said on Tuesday afternoon that it will file […]
16 April, 2013
By Julian Bajkowski Local governments in New South Wales have slammed moves by the O’Farrell state government to push through new laws that would allow the immediate suspension of councils without prior notice as part of bid to gain greater control over the sector. Peak group Local Government NSW (LGNSW) has demanded the deferral of […]
14 March, 2013
By Julian Bajkowski The mining industry has given the cold shoulder to a renewed push from local governments, engineers and the federal bureaucracy to introduce a national ‘user-pays’ road-funding system to arrest the deteriorating state of regional roads. The resources sector now looks unlikey to come on-board with broader federal efforts to reform the revenue […]
22 August, 2012
Governments faced with growing populations and dwindling natural resources have two choices. They can let urban sprawl continue to eat up useful land or they can plan compact cities that will be good for the economy and the environment, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in its latest report – Compact […]
15 June, 2012
As part of delivering its national recycling program, Australia and New Zealand Recycling Platform Limited (ANZRP) is running a series of information sessions to update local government on collection and recycling opportunities. The sessions will provide an opportunity for ANZRP and councils to discuss how the program will be delivered and funded, as well […]
9 May, 2012
Corruption allegations concerning acceptance of gifts and benefits and alleged payment of fraudulent invoices will be looked into by the Independent Commission against Crime (ICAC). According to the ICAC it will be investigating allegations that employees of 110 state and local council authorities including; Lithgow City; Ballina Shire; Orange City; Walgett Shire; City of […]
30 September, 2011
By Lilia Guan The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy made an announcement to the National General Assembly of Local Government in Canberra yesterday. He said the Digital Local Government program would help local councils take full advantage of the National Broadband Network (NBN) through the development and upgrade […]
23 June, 2011
A planning report commissioned by the NSW Government has revealed that the number of local councils with extreme planning processing times has more than halved. The 2009-10 Local Development Performance Monitoring Report showed ten councils had a mean gross determination time for development applications (Das) of over 100 days in 2009-10 compared with 21 councils […]
8 February, 2011
With three quarters of Queensland declared a disaster zone, councils and shires across Australia have thrown their support behind the flood recovery effort. In South Australia, the Local Government Association offered to deploy personnel to flood-affected communities in Queensland to repair damaged infrastructure. LGA president Felicity-ann Lewis directly contacted the Local Government Association of Queensland […]
17 January, 2011
By Lilia Guan The latest survey commissioned by Australian-owned Macquarie Telecom and conducted by Access Economics, showed more than half of the businesses surveyed expect the way in which they operate will change under the NBN. This change was expected to; improve online capabilities (55 per cent); deliver product and service offerings (50 per cent); create […]
3 December, 2010
About thirty councils across South Australia have implemented a web product, so residents of the State can access a central database of services available in their area. The solution dubbed, SA Council Maps, was a combination of MapInfo Exponare and MapInfo Envinsa Online Services from IT vendor, Pitney Bowes Business Insight. The solution […]
29 October, 2010
By Lilia Guan At the Local Government Association of NSW Annual Conference in Albury this week, councils talked about three main concerns of the sector: modernising the financing of local government; modern approaches to community wellbeing; and modern approaches to the natural and built environment. Shires Association president, Bruce Miller, told Government News, […]
26 October, 2010
By Angela Dorizas The Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) has announced that it will undertake further analysis of the social and economic impacts of proposed water cuts on local communities. MDBA chair, Michael Taylor, said the decision to conduct an expanded study was in response to recent community backlash against the scale of cuts. “Over the […]
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