Image: LGNSW President Darriea Turley AM at the 2022 Excellence in the Environment Awards ceremony in Sydney.

06 December 2022

Excellence in the Environment Awards

Earlier today, I had the pleasure of attending the LGNSW Excellence in the Environment Awards at Prince Henry Centre in Little Bay.

The awards are designed to recognise outstanding achievements by NSW councils in managing and protecting the environment.

I was so impressed with the quality of nominations, particularly the innovative ways so many councils are protecting and enhancing all aspects of their environment.

I would like to congratulate all the winners for their achievement.

View the 2022 Award Winners

Agritourism reforms

There has been a lot of concerns rightly raised across our sector about the NSW Government’s agritourism reforms that came into effect last week.

Notwithstanding the fact that the reforms were announced in October and put into effect a little over a month later, these changes are going to cause tremendous challenges for regional and rural councils.

The heightened potential for land use conflict between rural properties will require the attention of council officers and divert planning resources away from critically important development assessment functions.

Questions are also being raised about the definitions used to define the scope of these reforms, with concerns that the one-size-fits-all approach could see a reduction in primary production land used for actual farming. This will place an additional burden on councils to determine whether a farm is eligible to be able to use these provisions as a supplement to their primary agricultural income.

Councils will also need time to consider issues such as lots without dwelling entitlements, compliance implications, unregulated clearing, risk to life in camping areas (from fires and floods) and other potential impacts.

Given these serious concerns, we are repeating our calls for the government to give the councils the option to opt-out of these reforms until suitable mitigations are in place.

This must include allowing councils sufficient time to amend their local planning instruments to determine where agritourism is and is not appropriate.

We also want a monitoring system implemented that will look at the costs and benefits of these reforms, and for these results to help shape a review of the policy in 12 months.

Red Fleet concerns

As I mentioned last week, a number of councils who did not record Rural Fire Service (RFS) mobile assets in their financial statements have now received a qualified audit report.

This latest development is completely unacceptable and we have made our concerns known to the Minister for Local Government Wendy Tuckerman.

We have also stressed that we remain ready and willing to work with the NSW Government to resolve this issue and finally end the uncertainty for councils.

I would once again like to thank all the councils right across the state who have joined us in opposing the NSW Government’s nonsensical position on this issue.

LGNSW staff are currently tracking the number of qualified audit reports that have been issued to councils. If you have received such a report, I would encourage you to notify us by emailing LGNSW Chief Economist Shaun McBride. 

Rural and Regional Summit

Registrations are now open for the Rural and Regional Summit, which will be held on Monday 20 February 2023 at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth.

This one-day event is a crucial lead-up to the NSW state election with a quality line-up of speakers from the government, opposition and industry set to take part, with a key focus on issues impacting rural and regional communities.

But wait. Why is the Rural and Regional Summit being held in Sydney you ask? Well due to overwhelming feedback from our members, Sydney was chosen as the preferred location due to ease of travel to and from the city.

More information about the summit, including how to register your interest, is available here.

EOI to join StateCover board

StateCover - an insurer dedicated to serving councils - is seeking expressions of interest from eligible and suitably qualified councillors (of councils that are members of LGNSW) to join its board.

To be eligible for appointment, applicants must be a councillor of a council that is a member of LGNSW and a policy-holding council member of StateCover.

The successful applicant will be appointed for a term ending at the conclusion of the StateCover Annual General Meeting in November 2025.

Prospective applicants must obtain an information pack containing further details about the position and the detailed selection criteria by emailing Vanessa Smith.

Applications close at midnight Wednesday, 21 December 2022.

Vale Councillor Elaine Bendall

Condolences go out this week to family, friends and colleagues of Councillor Elaine Bendall, who recently passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. Elaine was deeply committed to her Lachlan Shire community, and she will be sorely missed.

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