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Business View Australia - January-February 2016 11
INFRASTRUCTURE
The Association has provided coun-
cils with data on how this process
has worked in other states and ar-
ranged for speakers with knowledge
of the subject to educate councils
on the issue.
The State Government is providing
finance to councils to undertake fea-
sibility studies to either implement
strategic resource sharing models
or to undertake voluntary mergers.
Under this scheme, the government
bears 50% of the cost of the study
and requires the councils to bear
the remaining portion.
The current government has also
started moving to a single planning
scheme for the state in respect of
land-use planning. This is a signif-
icant reform that will impact how
councils and communities interact
with the planning scheme.
LGAT has been involved at every
stage of the planning reform pro-
cess. The association has a rep-
resentation on a government task
force constituted for the purpose of
determining the impact of this re-
form and how it can be best imple-
mented. In addition to this, the LGAT
successfully advocated for the es-
tablishment of a technical reference
group provide advice on implemen-
tation practicalities. The Associa-
tion also co-funded an expert local
government planner to support the
State Government reform team.
Financial viability of
councils
LGAT has done extensive work on
understanding the gap in capacity
in councils in terms of how they are
managing assets. After studying this
matter in detail, the Association de-
signed a programme to assist coun-
cils in addressing this issue. LGAT
conducted a number of training pro-
grams on the subject to help coun-
cils upgrade their skills.