1 November 2022

Budget prioritises LG Sector Programs

It was pleasing to see last week’s Federal October Budget prioritise programs that will benefit the local government sector.

Headlining the announcements was funding for infrastructure, roads and natural disaster support.

This includes $250 million to extend the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program for another year, and $1.3 billion over four years for Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements in NSW to assist with the recovery efforts from the 2022 floods.

Pleasingly, there was funding to help communities build back better from natural disasters, with $30 million for disaster resilience this financial year and then $200 million per annum for the following three years for projects nominated by state and territory governments.

There was also an additional $100 million in Financial Assistance Grants (representing a standard adjustment for CPI and population growth), taking the total of these grants to $2.92 billion this year.

This funding coincides with a motion endorsed at last week’s Annual Conference which called for a review of the methodology and equity of Financial Assistance Grant funding. The review is not a substitution for our push to return Financial Assistance Grant funding to 1% of Commonwealth tax revenue: both are equally important. LGNSW will be advocating for this review over the next 12 months.

While there were a lot of wins in the budget, there were some disappointments.

The ditching of Round 6 of the $250 million Building Better Regions Fund is a blow for many of us, who were relying on funding via this program to undertake vital infrastructure projects and community development activities.

While I note it will be replaced with the Growing Regions Program and the Precincts and Partnerships Program (a total of $1 billion over three years), we need to ensure council needs are met, so LGNSW will closely review the funding guidelines once released. We’re also advocating for the Australian Government to consider current applications made under the Building Better Regions Fund before it was discontinued.

With community safety and crime prevention a key priority for many councils, the scrapped $50 million slated for the Safer Communities Fund is another concern. 

LGNSW would have also liked to have seen the government go a lot further than its target of 10,000 new affordable homes over the next five years. This number is far too low and will barely scratch the surface when it comes to tackling the housing affordability crisis in NSW.

As always, the Australia Local Government Association has undertaken some fantastic budget analysis and I would strongly encourage everyone to visit its website to find out more on how this budget will impact our councils and communities.

Win! Public Spaces (Unattended Property) legislation begins

As flagged at last week’s LGNSW Annual Conference, Local Government Minister Wendy Tuckerman has delivered a big win for the sector with the new Public Spaces (Unattended Property) Act 2021 and the Public Spaces (Unattended Property) Regulation 2022 due to begin.

These new laws replace the Impounding Act 1993 and Impounding Regulation 2013 and are expected to significantly reduce council and community costs by more than $10 million a year.

The reforms put a greater emphasis on owners to take responsibility or items such as shopping trolleys, vehicles and unattended animals in public spaces, and sets stronger penalties for failure to collect or take responsibility for their possessions

I thank the Minister for responding to our concerns, and for undertaking the kind of extensive consultation that delivers fit-for-purpose legislation.   

Jobs and Skills Summit

I have received correspondence from Federal Local Government Minister Kristy McBain thanking the sector for our contribution to the Jobs and Skills Summit, held in September.

Before the summit, I met with the Minister in-person to present the challenges our member councils are having in recruiting and retaining staff to local government and to vital industries in their communities.

To follow up on these discussions, the Minister provided details about the Employment White Paper consultation and encouraged each and every one of our councils to make submissions before 30 November.

I will be in touch with members soon to provide more information on how you can best contribute to this process.

Win! Domestic Waste Management Charge review

IPART has released the final report on its Review of Domestic Waste Management Charges and, in a win for local government, confirmed it will not set a benchmark peg.  

I often talk about unity being our strength, and this great outcome demonstrates how effective we can be when we all put a consistent case forward.  

IPART has instead recommended that the Office of Local Government update the Council Rating and Revenue Raising Manual to provide further guidance to councils on setting domestic waste management (DWM) charges, and work with the Audit Office to undertake case-by-case performance audits.  

IPART has reserved its right to consider whether to limit DWM annual charges in future years. LGNSW will continue to advocate for better outcomes for councils and communities as needed.

Win! Standard conditions implementation - NSW Government listens to councils

In yet another big result for LGNSW’s advocacy efforts, I am pleased to announce the NSW Government has decided to delay the start date for implementing standard conditions of development consent in the NSW Planning Portal until 30 June 2023.

This will provide time to finalise the review of their conditions, continue training and testing the portal updates, and upload the conditions into the library on the portal.

This welcome decision recognises the pressure our under-resourced planning teams are facing and we appreciate the government listening to our feedback.

We also thank the Department of Planning and Environment for its continued support in transitioning their conditions and notices of determination in the portal over the coming months.

New cemetery licensing scheme and LGNSW network

After a long consultation period, a new cemetery/interment licensing scheme has started, with requirements to be phased in over two years.

This scheme will have implications for all cemeteries – including those operated by councils – by setting minimum standards for maintenance, customer contracts and publishing of fees and charges.

LGNSW advocated strongly to the NSW Government cemeteries regulator, Cemeteries and Crematoria NSW, to minimise the compliance and reporting burden on councils and ensure new requirements don’t lead to higher costs being passed onto families at what is already a difficult time.

So it’s good to see that the newly released scheme includes some significant wins for us – including the scrapping of the NSW Government proposal requiring councils to ringfence perpetual maintenance funds. Councils must have control of their investment and expenditure decisions, and new legal obligations to ringfence council funds are unnecessary given the existing regulatory and financial oversight under which we work.

In further good news, the NSW Government has also committed to working with council cemetery operators to avoid duplication by recognising equivalent practices that may already be in place in areas such as reporting, customer service, contracts and some aspects of cemetery maintenance.

To support staff during and after the rollout, LGNSW is establishing a Local Government Cemeteries Network for council cemetery management staff and I would encourage all cemetery management staff to join this new network.

More information

BACK TO MAIN PAGE