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Commission issues report on council
represent NSW councils regulatory roles Members of the Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW have voted overwhelmingly to form a single association to represent the views and policies of local government in the state. The Local Government Association voted 161-53 in favour of forming a single body while the Shires Association voted 59-13 in favour. The new association will be broken into regions – a metropolitan/urban region and a rural/regional region. This will ensure the new body fairly represents the interests of all councils irrespective of their geographical location. When voting at conferences, each region will have an equal number of votes, distributed proportionally among member councils within each region according to population, and all member councils will receive a minimum of one vote. The LGSA will now work with Fair Work Australia and the NSW Industrial Registry to complete the administrative steps and set a date for amalgamation, which will most likely occur in early 2013. Following the amalgamation date, an Interim Board will take over from the current Shires Association and LGA Executive Boards until all members meet for their first conference as One Association. Members will vote at that conference on who should be appointed to the new Association Executive Board and as the first President. 4 | Council Manager Aug-Sep 2012
It is vital that federal and state governments understand the capacity of local government to deliver desired regulatory outcomes, according to the Productivity Commission. The commission has released its final report dealing with the role of local government as a regulator and it says such understanding by the higher levels of government is essential because of the “huge diversity of local governments across Australia”. The PC says where resources and skills are scarce, local government must be given clear guidance as to how to prioritise its regulatory activities. Commissioner Warren Mundy said local governments could inadvertently or incorrectly impose costs on business, and it was important that businesses had access to well-defined dispute handling processes that allowed complaints and grievances to be objectively considered. The commission’s final report on ‘Performance Benchmarking of Australian Business Regulation: The Role of Local Government as Regulator’ identifies a number of areas of local government regulation that place unnecessary regulatory burdens on businesses, especially in relation to planning and zoning assessment and building and construction regulation. The study examines the regulatory activities of local governments across all states and the Northern Territory. It has identified leading practices in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
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MAV taskforce to push for unfunded super scheme A taskforce will advise the Municipal Association of Victoria Board on a campaign to reinstate the Local Authorities Superannuation Fund (LASF) Defined Benefit Plan as an exempt public sector scheme. Rob Spence, Chief Executive of the MAV, said unfair rules required local government to maintain a fully funded super scheme which would require councils to top up a $396.9 million shortfall from July 1 next year. Mr Spence said although it was closed to new members in 1993, current laws required local government’s defined benefit scheme to hold enough funds to meet the retirement benefits owed to members now and into the future. He said if current assets fell below what was needed to pay current and future benefits, then employers were required to make top-up payments – it was proving a volatile and unpredictable model for which councils couldn’t plan ahead. Mr Spence said an exemption for other public sector schemes allowed the Federal Government to have an unfunded defined benefit liability of around $61 billion. The Victorian Government’s liability exceeded $29 billion. At a briefing in early July, councils agreed to unite to fight for legislative reform that put local government on an equal footing with exempt state and federal schemes. Mr Spence said as well as seeking legislative changes, the MAV would continue its negotiations with the State for councils to access lower borrowing rates through the Treasury Corporation of Victoria to help pay the shortfall.