8 November 2022

Thoughts are again with flooded communities

My thoughts are once again with the councils and communities that continue to be impacted by floods.

Incredibly, for some of these communities this is their fourth or fifth major flooding event of the year.

Such devastation will take an enormous toll.

LGNSW continues to work closely with our State and Federal colleagues to ensure appropriate support is reaching impacted communities through this challenging period.

If LGNSW can escalate any of your council’s recovery concerns through the State Recovery Committee, please email LGNSW Director Advocacy Damian Thomas at [email protected].

Statewide Roads Emergency

As anyone involved in local government would understand, this year’s extreme wet weather has devastated our local and regional road network across all corners of the state.

Relentless flooding and heavy rainfall throughout has left councils facing a $2.5 billion cost blowout to repair their roads at a time when crippling funding constraints and tough economic conditions are really starting to place enormous pressure on budgets.

It is for this reason that Local Government NSW declared a Statewide Roads Emergency. This was unanimously supported by the NSW mayors and councillors who attended last week’s National Local Roads and Transport Congress.

By declaring this emergency, we are calling on the NSW and Federal governments to take urgent and decisive action that will assist us in our efforts to rebuild our roads and help our communities get back on their feet.

This includes:

• An acceleration and significant increase in funding for the $1.1 billion Fixing Local Roads and Fixing Country Bridges program
• A boost to Road Block Grant funding to compensate for the damage to the regional road network
• New funding to provide councils with plant machinery and skilled workers to expedite road repairs.

Without this urgent support, the economic and social costs of the floods will only be exacerbated, prolonging what is already shaping to be a multi-year recovery effort.

IPART to hold workshops on rate peg methodology review

As part of its much-anticipated review of the rate peg methodology, IPART is inviting councils to take part in a series of workshops over the coming weeks.

In-person workshops will be held at Wagga Wagga, Forbes, Tamworth and Sydney, while two online workshops will also be held for metropolitan and rural/regional areas.

This review is our best chance to rectify a rate peg methodology that is not fit for purpose and ensure decisions that led to IPART setting a 0.7% rate peg for the current financial year never occur again.

It is for this reason that I would strongly encourage all councils to attend these workshops so that each of you can provide details on how the current methodology is failing our sector.

More information on the workshops, including dates for each of the locations, is available at the IPART website.

Concern over government’s ‘calling in’ planning proposals

The NSW Government's move last week to leapfrog councils and assume planning control over three large housing developments in south-west Sydney is bitterly disappointing.

This is the latest example of the government "calling in" planning proposals and, while we support moves that will boost housing and assessment capacity, this must not be done by diminishing local decision-making powers.

What makes this worse is that it was done without any meaningful consultation with local government.

Instead of riding roughshod over councils' planning powers, the government would be better placed to rethink its rush through of reforms such as the new agritourism policy, or about fixing its dysfunctional Planning Portal - both of which are taking council staff away from their normal assessment work.

Local government is best placed to lead local and regional planning and we will continue to remind the government about this fundamental principle as we approach the State election in March 2023.

In addition, we will continue to demand that councils have the final say in any planning proposals that are called in for NSW Government assessment.

LGNSW Human Resources Summit

This is your last call to purchase tickets for the highly anticipated LGNSW Human Resources Summit, which will be held at Rydges World Square in Sydney between 16 and 18 November.

This three-day event has been specially designed to provide HR professionals with the practical strategies and insights needed to address key workforce challenges that are facing local government today.

There will be a range of expert speakers who will provide evidence-based insights as well as the chance to connect face-to-face with the local government HR community and enjoy dedicated networking time.

Visit the LGNSW website for more information and to purchase tickets.

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