LGNSW Board members meeting online last week.
24 February 2022
Board meets online
It was great to get together with all our newly elected LGNSW Board members last Friday for our second meeting of 2022; hopefully the last we will need to conduct online now that NSW is easing COVID-related constraints.
The entire Board is looking forward to our Special Conference next week and a subsequent workshop where we will finalise LGNSW’s Strategic Plan, which will incorporate your guidance through resolutions passed at our Special Conference. Don’t forget to check out the motions up for debate ahead of time by downloading the Conference Business Paper.
We’re also very much looking forward to welcoming back our colleagues at Eurobodalla Shire Council, who re-joined LGNSW this week! I am beyond delighted that Mayor Mathew Hatcher, his eight fellow councillors - and of course, council’s hardworking staff – are back as part of the LGNSW team. We need a strong and united voice for local government in NSW more than ever given some of the critical issues facing us all in 2022 and 2023.
Top of the agenda at our conference, and a hot Board topic discussed last week, is the devastating impact of the 0.7% baseline rate peg handed down by IPART for this year. We are all scrambling to try to recast budgets and save infrastructure, services and jobs given what has been estimated as a shocking $100 million shortfall sector-wide. We have combined your many submitted motions into a single LGNSW Board motion for discussion and debate next week: you can read the details in the Business Paper.
Developers’ infrastructure contributions are also on the agenda, with IPART last week presenting the new Minister for Planning Anthony Roberts with its final report on the local infrastructure contributions system. These contributions are applied to new developments and are used for the local infrastructure needed to turning constructions sites into communities and houses into homes. Understandably it is a really vexed issue for our sector, with developers lobbying the Government hard in a bid to reduce their costs of bringing a development to market.
Staying with IPART-related issues for a moment, I am pleased to announce LGNSW has secured an extension for councils to lodge their submissions for consideration ahead of the Tribunal’s Draft Report on Review of Domestic Waste Management Charges. Those submissions are now due by 29 April 2022.
Local Government Remuneration Tribunal
The fair remuneration of councillors is another topic addressed by the Board last week: it’s a debate that many councillors find difficult to have without opening themselves to accusations of self-interest. However, few members of our community realise how little councillors really are paid for their work; the time investment required to do the job well means many actually earn less than the minimum wage.
As argued in our submission to the NSW Local Government Remuneration Tribunal (which you can download to read in full):
“…fees paid to mayors and councillors are not commensurate to the wages of supermarket shelf stackers, let alone to the fees paid to equivalent public and private sector roles involving similar responsibilities and levels of accountability.”
Board members agreed the average time devoted to their democratically elected roles averaged between 50 and 60 hours a week, making it challenging for many in the community to bring their expertise to the sector while also balancing full-time employment, financial and family commitments. Current and past councillors have run for office because of their commitment to the community, but it is not unreasonable to recognise that they should be fairly paid for their efforts.
LGNSW’s submission draws on research by the Australian National University’s Associate Professor Tanya Jakimow, who looked at how inadequate remuneration impacts on wellbeing, diversity, and representation in local government.
We’re calling for the maximum statutory increase of 2.5% on the existing mayor and councillor fees, which is still well below the 3.5% Consumer Price Index increase to December 2021.
The Tribunal is required to issue its decision by no later than Sunday 1 May 2022.
ALGA Pre-Election Briefings
Mayors, councillors, general managers and council staff are invited to attend a free, online briefing next month with our national counterparts, the Australian Local Government Association, in the lead-up to the Federal election.
Shadow Local Government Minister the Hon Jason Clare MP is first up from 9.30-10.30am on Tuesday 8 March.
The Assistant Minister for Local Government, Kevin Hogan, will present the Government’s achievements and commitments to our sector the following week at 3.00pm (on Tuesday 15 March).
Registrations will require a council email – for further information email Darren Hunter, ALGA’s Executive Director Advocacy.
BACK TO MAIN PAGE