The Australian Local Government Association’s initial submission to a productivity review has highlighted councils’ ability to deliver positive economic outcomes.
The Productivity Commission inquiry will canvass potential reforms to lift this key economic indicator, focussing on workforce skills and training and how business and regulatory environments can be shaped to spur new technologies and innovation across all sectors of the economy.
It is the second such review by the commission, following the Shifting the Dial report in 2017 which identified, among other things, concerns about the capacity of local governments to perform their roles.
To that end, it recommended performance reporting by councils similar to Victoria’s Know Your Council reporting framework.
ALGA says it will work closely with member associations to ensure the final inquiry submission provides compelling evidence about why sustainably funded local government is crucial to Australia’s future productivity.
“Throughout the recent natural disasters and COVID-19 shut down Local Governments’ community infrastructure and services such as libraries, pools, sporting facilities, arts and culture facilities, parks and sportsgrounds have played a significant role in ensuring the wellbeing of local communities,” the ALGA submission states.
“In addition, population and financial pressures in some locations have meant that these vital community services and facilities can be over capacity, in need of repair and upgrade, or not available.
“One of the most significant issues in asset management is the ability of Councils to maintain current assets given funding can be focused on building new infrastructure. The availability and management of data platforms is also variable across the country and the availability of data is becoming more important with productivity reforms, for example for national heavy vehicle reform.”
“ALGA will outline this issue in more detail in our more comprehensive submission and draw on our research from our National State of the Assets Report,” it said.
