Perth councils divided over Barnett’s boundary overhaul

By Paul Hemsley An ambitious and controversial bid to overhaul Perth’s metropolitan local government areas by Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett has triggered widely differing reactions from councils targeted to have their boundaries radically redrawn. Formally revealed this week, Mr Barnett’s plan will slash the number of Perth-based councils from 30 to 15 and has […]

WA councils warn freight rail closure will rip-up local roads

By Paul Hemsley The Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) has hit out at Brookfield Rail’s planned closure of two grain freight lines in the state’s Wheatbelt, claiming that the shutdown will force thousands of heavy trucks onto local roads which can’t deal with the big-wheeled burden unless councils are allocated new funding for upgrades. […]

Perth’s council merger triggers conservative revolt

By Julian Bajkowski and Paul Hemsley Attempts in Western Australia to push through reforms that would allow the government to halve the number of metropolitan councils have come conspicuously unstuck after local government reform proposals triggered a fiery backlash inside Premier Colin Barnetts’ own party room. The WA Premier this week ducked putting the issue […]

WA road safety cuts collide with councils

By Paul Hemsley The Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) has accused the Colin Barnett government of being asleep at the wheel on road safety after the Police Minister’s office informed WALGA President Troy Pickard that the state has cut funding for the RoadWise community awareness program by half. The highly successful WALGA-managed program has […]

Councils call for central rubbish tsar

By Julian Bajkowski Councils in Western Australia have called on the state government create a new statutory garbo-in-chief to deal with ballooning amounts of waste being created as a byproduct of Perth’s population as the city tries to stay on track to meet tough targets for recycling and the diversion of waste from landfill. The […]

WA laws aim to silence barking dogs

By Paul Hemsley The Western Australian government has unleashed an ambitious plan to help councils stop dogs from barking. At least barking so much that they make a nuisance of themselves in populated areas. A newly proposed provision by Minister for Local Government Tony Simpson under the Dog Amendment Bill 2013 will provide councils with […]

West now the best for a Mayoral pay rise

By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski Mayors and councillors across Western Australia will reap annual pay rises of up to 400 per cent on the back of an intensive campaign by local governments that successfully pushed the state Salaries and Allowances Tribunal (SAT) to decide that financial compensation be put on par with other states […]

Liberals support for referendum shatters

By Julian Bajkowski Bitter factional infighting has torn apart public Coalition support for a Constitutional change that would guarantee federal funds can flow directly to more than 500 local governments after key hard-right elements publicly railed against the case for a ‘yes’ vote in a torrid Senate debate. After more than a year of publicly […]

NSW councils try to turn Page on referendum ‘yes’ case

By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski Councils in New South Wales have repudiated claims by the state’s Minister for Local Government, Don Page, that an amendment to the Constitution to allow financial recognition of local governments will lead to pork barrelling as baseless scaremongering. As the September 14th referendum debate heats up, joint presidents of […]

Referendum text released amid Coalition cleavage

By Julian Bajkowski The Gillard government has finally released the text of the proposed Constitutional amendment to give financial recognition to local government, with Opposition spokesman on local government Barnaby Joyce emphatically backing the case for change in the face of a fresh Coalition rupture on the issue. After weeks of intense horse-trading, Local Government […]

Victorian state and local governments split over referendum

By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski Victorian councils have slammed the state’s local government minister, Jeanette Powell, over claims that a referendum on financial recognition of local government in the Constitution could result in an erosion of state government power as deliberate scaremongering. In a broadside aimed squarely at his state government, Municipal Association of […]

LOADING....

End of content

No more pages to load