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Thursday, 9th May 2013

Locals Links Must Be Strong Hobart Mercury

It was a great moment to be part of the crowd when the lights came on at Bellerive Oval and the first Twenty/20 match got underway a couple of years back. It meant that international cricket and Aussie Rules could become regular fixtures at Hobart, good news for fans and the Tasmanian economy. Clarence City Council was one of the prime backers of the project which was helped along by a modest contribution from the Federal Government. Nearby along the Derwent foreshore at Elwick Bay, there is another Federal partnership underway with Local Government. In this case, Glenorchy City Council is breathing creative life into the area with the Glenorchy Art and Sculpture Park, a great counterpoint to nearby MONA, with the bonus of a nature boardwalk along the riverfront. And when the Hobart City Council realised that University of Tasmania students were at risk from the increasingly busy traffic on Sandy Bay Road, they received a new roundabout from the Federal Government’s Roads to Recovery program.
Local and Federal Government partnerships have been commonplace for at least 40 years. They help build community infrastructure and strengthen local economies. It would probably come as a surprise then to most Australians to discover that this financial relationship between the Federal and Local Government is not actually acknowledged in our Constitution.  That is because the Constitution was drafted more than a century ago when Australia was a very different place. In those days, we were a collection of separate colonies. People rarely travelled far from home, given that the horse and cart was the main form of transport. The tasks of those earliest councils were little more than maintaining local roads and collecting rubbish which they funded via property rates.
In 2013, councils are vastly different to those that existed at Federation. No-one thinks there’s anything odd these days about them providing childcare, aged-care, employment and disability services, swimming pools, sporting fields or local roads. These days, some of this infrastructure development and service delivery is made possible by the Federal Government partnering with local government.
For example, in 2009 the Commonwealth partnered with local government to deliver the Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program, to keep jobs in local communities and build lasting infrastructure during the Global Financial Crisis. Together, we funded over 6,000 community projects such as roads, bridges, sporting centres, libraries. That’s in addition to the $1.75 billion we’ve put directly into council roads across the country over the past three years through the Roads to Recovery scheme.
It’s important the Commonwealth is able to keep investing securely into the future and that’s exactly what including Local Government in the Constitution is about. It is about saying ‘yes’ to retain important community benefits.  It is about saying ‘yes’ to our communities. It’s about acknowledging the modern reality that we have three tiers of government. It is also important that constitutional change does not alter the fact that local governments are created by and are accountable to State Governments.
In 2011, an expert panel led by the Hon. James Spigelman AC QC concluded that financial recognition should be taken to a referendum. It urged the Commonwealth to work with the States to get their support. A Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Recognition of Local Government was then formed to consider the findings of the expert panel. In its report tabled before the Federal Parliament in March, it agreed it was time to take the issue to a referendum. Uncertainty, it said, was affecting strategic planning and, as local councils are often the biggest single employer in both urban and regional areas, it was ‘in the economic interest of these communities to have this issue resolved’.
We know that for a referendum to succeed it will require bipartisan support and a broad consensus in the community. I have been encouraged with the response to consultations across the political spectrum up to this point. Such a constitutional change will merely confirm existing practice so that it reflects how our system government works. It is a modest change but one that we should all embrace.
 
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Electorate Office

334a Marrickville Rd
Marrickville NSW 2204

Phone: 02 9564 3588

Parliament House Office

Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Phone: 02 6277 7700

Phone: (02) 9564 3588
Fax: (02) 9564 1734
Email: A.Albanese.MP@aph.gov.au

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which our offices stand and we pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge the sorrow of the Stolen Generations and the impacts of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We also recognise the resilience, strength and pride of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

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