4 March 2022

Our thoughts go to flood-affected colleagues
As I write to you this week our thoughts are with all our friends and colleagues in Lismore, Ballina, north-eastern NSW and other flood-affected areas of the state as the full extent of the crisis unfolds.

Councillors and council staff have been on the frontlines, fighting to save homes, businesses and communities, and our hearts ache for them.

But we also recognise that there is a long, hard slog ahead and they will need significant support to repair damaged infrastructure and rebuild communities.

LGNSW is working closely with our state and federal colleagues to ensure the money gets out the door to those LGAs in need.

We’re also working with the Office of Local Government and Resilience NSW to determine how non-impacted councils can best support their colleagues and communities.

Special Conference Report
With the floods ever-present in our minds, nearly 800 councillors gathered at the Hyatt Regency Sydney this week to discuss and debate the key issues facing our sector. 

The LGNSW Board motion calling for an urgent review of IPART’s 0.7% baseline rate peg, and action to ensure no council is financially disadvantaged by this shock determination, received unanimous support. 

So it is really pleasing that Local Government Minister Wendy Tuckerman, in her address, confirmed that the NSW Government has heard our arguments and has asked IPART to review its rate peg methodology, including the local government cost index.

Minister Tuckerman also told the Conference she was acutely aware that a review would not help councils here and now, and she was looking at immediate means of assistance. I’ll continue to update you on our advocacy progress in this critical area.

Regional Housing Crisis
The regional housing crisis was also a top priority for delegates, who unanimously passed a series of motions on this urgent issue. While Ballina councillors may have been absent, their motion to call for a Royal Commission into the issue was passed on the voices, as was a motion by Byron Shire to push for the money generated from land tax and stamp duty to be reinvested in the area. A resolution to persuade the State Government to revisit the issue of short-term holiday accommodation also passed unanimously.

Councils support tourism’s financial injection into local economies, but not at the expense of locals, who provide the services that support that tourism. Teachers, paramedics, nurses and police are also critical to our most popular holiday towns and they need affordable accommodation. We need to look at all the levers we can pull to ensure our young families and our essential workers can afford to put a roof over their heads.

View the full record of Conference Decisions and Conference Resolutions. We’ll bring you updates on the progress against these resolutions in the weeks ahead.

Awards
Hearty congratulations to Blayney Shire Council and the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, who took out local government’s highest accolades: the A.R. Bluett Awards.

Awards trustees Les McMahon, Genia McCaffery and Paul Braybrooks OAM had the extremely tough task of selecting NSW’s best metropolitan and regional/rural council from 14 nominations in 2022 and unveiled the winners at the conference.

Mr McMahon said Blayney Shire Council may be one of the smallest in the state, but was making outstanding contributions to its community. He described the City of Canterbury-Bankstown as living up to its motto of “a council working hard and smart”, delivering innovative programs in the midst of COVID outbreaks.

Also awarded at the Special Conference was the Lifetime Achievement Award, which went to Cr Ray Donald OAM. Ray served Bogan Shire Council for 30 consecutive years – 24 of them as Mayor. Other award recipients included Cr Brian Nelson (Lachlan Shire Council), Cr Reg Kidd (Orange City Council), Cr Robert Pynsent (Cessnock City Council), Oberon Mayor Cr Kathy Sajowitz, Cr David Kingham (Blayney Shire) and Cr Doug Curran (Griffith City Council).

2022 Annual Conference
In just eight short months we will come together again when we return to our regular event schedule with the 2022 Annual Conference, which will take place from Sunday 23 October to Tuesday 25 October at the Crowne Plaza in the Hunter Valley – I look forward to seeing you there.

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