In this episode:
Victorian councils taking a stand on responsible dog ownership and tree vandalism;
A joint campaign to tackle ageism;
The search for dark matter takes a big step forward in rural Victoria;
Finalists announced for the MAV Technology Awards;
Plus lots more from around the world of local government across Australia and internationally.
Links for this episode:
1. Greater Shepparton animal owner prosecutions
2. Bayside tree vandalism
3. Queen Victoria market revitalisation project
4. Councils tackling ageism together
5. Review of Building Legislative and Regulatory System
6. Stawell underground lab moves ahead
7. Roundup Extra: Interview Cr Murray Emerson
8. MAV Technology Awards Finalists
9. Geelong Arts Industry Development Fund
10. New Dandenong Recreation facility management model
11. VLGA upcoming events
12. Kalgoorlie-Boulder CEO suspended
13. Cockburn commercial food waste trial
14. Sunshine Coast automated waste collection system
15. Townsville Laboratory Services accreditation
16. Bayside and Georges River Councils shared services
17. Eurobodalla renewable energy agreement
18. Cumberland economic statement released
19. Wingecarribee executives depart
20. Devonport 40th birthday celebrations
21. Top 50 Smart City Governments
22. UK parental conflict funding
23. NYT: If you build it, they will bike
The Local Government News Roundup is brought to you by the Victorian Local Government Association, home of the VLGA Connect series of interviews and podcasts.
Support the Roundup and get access to special episodes and regular breaking news updates by becoming a subscriber for around $5 per month. ($3 USD) Click here to subscribe now.
The Local Government News Roundup is brought to you by the Victorian Local Governance Association, the national broadcaster on all things local government; and supported by Davidson, the nationally recognised executive recruitment and business advisory service.
Links for stories referenced in the podcast can be found in the transcript, or by visiting the Roundup website.
In this episode:
Victorian councils taking a stand on responsible dog ownership and tree vandalism;
A joint campaign to tackle ageism;
The search for dark matter takes a big step forward in rural Victoria;
Finalists announced for the MAV Technology Awards;
Plus lots more from around the world of local government across Australia and internationally.
Links for this episode:
1. Greater Shepparton animal owner prosecutions
2. Bayside tree vandalism
3. Queen Victoria market revitalisation project
4. Councils tackling ageism together
5. Review of Building Legislative and Regulatory System
6. Stawell underground lab moves ahead
7. Roundup Extra: Interview Cr Murray Emerson
8. MAV Technology Awards Finalists
9. Geelong Arts Industry Development Fund
10. New Dandenong Recreation facility management model
11. VLGA upcoming events
12. Kalgoorlie-Boulder CEO suspended
13. Cockburn commercial food waste trial
14. Sunshine Coast automated waste collection system
15. Townsville Laboratory Services accreditation
16. Bayside and Georges River Councils shared services
17. Eurobodalla renewable energy agreement
18. Cumberland economic statement released
19. Wingecarribee executives depart
20. Devonport 40th birthday celebrations
21. Top 50 Smart City Governments
22. UK parental conflict funding
23. NYT: If you build it, they will bike
The Local Government News Roundup is brought to you by the Victorian Local Government Association, home of the VLGA Connect series of interviews and podcasts.
Support the Roundup and get access to special episodes and regular breaking news updates by becoming a subscriber for around $5 per month. ($3 USD) Click here to subscribe now.
The Local Government News Roundup is brought to you by the Victorian Local Governance Association, the national broadcaster on all things local government; and supported by Davidson, the nationally recognised executive recruitment and business advisory service.
Links for stories referenced in the podcast can be found in the transcript, or by visiting the Roundup website.
Hello and welcome to the Local Government News Roundup. I’m Chris Eddy, and this is episode 11, recorded 11th April 2021.
Coming up:
Victorian councils taking a stand on responsible dog ownership and tree vandalism;
A joint campaign to tackle ageism;
The search for dark matter takes a big step forward in rural Victoria;
Finalists announced for the MAV Technology Awards;
Plus lots more from around the world of local government across Australia and internationally.
The Local Government News Roundup is brought to you by the Victorian Local Governance Association, which is holding a number of upcoming events of interest to the sector including a workshop on embedding gambling harm minimisation strategies in Public Health and Wellbeing Plans. More details later in the program.
Firstly to our Victorian roundup.
The City of Greater Shepparton is taking a stand for responsible pet ownership, taking three residents to court over dog attacks and animal cruelty.
Each of the three residents was found guilty of various charges in the Shepparton Magistrates’ Court, with a combination of sentences and costs imposed.
The Council says the sentences are a clear message to pet owners that it will not tolerate people who disregard the law.
Melbourne’s Bayside City Council is investigating acts of vandalism on the Hampton foreshore, where 26 trees were killed in a patch of destroyed vegetation.
The Council believes the area was poisoned over a number of months, with many of the trees drilled with holes and filled with poison, some cut at the base, and the tops of others pruned off.
A reward of up to $25,000 is offered for information leading to a successful prosecution.
The City of Melbourne is set to invest almost $40 million in Queen Victoria Market, in a project that will create around 400 construction jobs. New trader and customer facilities will be built and the food hall revitalised as part of the works, which are in addition to the works underway on the Munro development and restoration of the heritage sheds.
Construction on the newly announced elements is expected to commence early next year.
Seven eastern Melbourne Councils have come together to run a campaign to tackle ageism across the region. Boroondara, Knox, Manningham, Maroondah, Monash, Whitehorse and Yarra Ranges have joined forces with the Inner East Primary Care Partnership to raise awareness about ageism, challenge the stereotypes of what it is to be older, and to encourage people to speak up and take action.
The campaign ties into the national EveryAge Counts campaign.
The Victorian State Government has established a Building Reform Expert Panel to review the building legislative and regulatory system.
The panel has been asked to advise on any changes necessary to improve the system in a three-stage review over two years.
The first stage will focus on practitioner registration, building approvals, regulatory oversight and consumer protection.
With the Easter Stawell Gift run and won for another year, a race of a different kind took a major step forward this past week with the announcement of the start of works on the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory - which is aiming to be the first lab in the Southern Hemisphere to conduct research into dark matter.
The facility will be a globally significant particle physics laboratory and create 79 jobs over the next 10 years. The Victorian Government has invested $5 million in the construction and fit-out, and a further $5 million has been committed by the Commonwealth Government.
To find out about the origins of this unique project, I spoke with the Mayor of Northern Grampians Shire Council, Cr Murray Emerson.
"One day I was sitting in the Town Hall and I got a phone call from Professor Jeremy Mould, and Jeremy said to me, "Mr Mayor, we want to come up and have a look down your hole." And this is how it started, it's amazing isn't it?
And he got a few of his people together from all over the world. They came up, we went down, came back up, and he said, "We want to put an underground physics laboratory down there to study this phenomenon called dark matter."
Murray, what do you think this will mean for the Stawell community and for your Shire?
It's going to give us world recognition. We've already had 60-odd professors from around the world come and stay for a week, and have a bit of a look around our community, but we'd be looking more at an economical point of view. We'd be looking more at what it might create in the tourism world because the one in Gran Sasso has gigantic dollar figures in regard to their tourism component."
You can hear my full interview with Cr Emerson as a Local Government News Roundup Extra on our website at www.lgnewsroundup.com
The finalists for the 2021 MAV Technology Awards for Excellence have been announced, with Councils from four states featuring in the list across five categories.
Amongst 10 Victorian Councils in the running are Brimbank City Council, which has two programs in the finalist list for the Collaboration or Partnership category, and Hobsons Bay City Council, which will contend for the Customer Experience and Strategy and Planning awards.
Other Councils with multiple chances to pick up an award include Greater Geelong City Council, City of Darwin, City of Sydney, and Melton City Council.
The winners will be announced at an awards dinner on 29th April, and they will be eligible for the Victorian and Australian achievements of the year.
Greater Geelong City Council has announced a new fund to support local artists and creatives. The Arts Industry Development Fund is a response to needs identified following COVID-19, with skills and training shown to be a particular need.
A grant pool of $30,000 will be distributed through grants of up to $3,000 per submission.
Submissions are open until 30th April, and applicants will be notified by late May.
Greater Dandenong City Council will create a wholly-owned company to operate its recreation and leisure facilities from next year.
The facilities to come under the new management model include Noble Park Aquatic Centre, Springers Leisure Centre, Dandenong Stadium, and Dandenong Oasis which is to be replaced in the Council’s largest-ever capital project.
The Council’s CEO, John Bennie, said the new model will allow for a balance between a commercial management approach and meeting community needs. The Council is working with current facility management groups on a smooth transition to the new model, which is expected to come into effect on 1st July 2022.
It is with sadness that we note the passing of long-term Wellington Shire Councillor Malcolm Hole, after an illness. Cr Hole was serving his 7th term on Council, and twice served as Mayor, in 2002 and 2006. He was 76.
We also note the passing of former Shire of Birchip councillor Angus Barber on 5 April. Mr Barber was Shire President of Birchip in 1984 and 1985, and served on the council for 12 years until 1995.
The Local Government News Roundup is brought to you by the Victorian Local Governance Association, which is holding a number of upcoming events of interest to Councillors and Council Officers.
The next Governance Advisory Network meeting for governance managers from VLGA member Councils will be held on Friday 16th April at 11.00am. The network is an opportunity for governance practitioners to provide input into VLGA policy and advocacy development.
The VLGA Working Group on Gambling meeting on 21st April will feature as guest speaker the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, the Hon Melissa Horne;
And on the 22nd April, a free online workshop will be held to help Councils in incorporating strategies for dealing with the community consequences of gambling in Public Health and Wellbeing Plans. The workshop will be presented by Dr Susan Rennie and Steve Cooper, and it starts at12.30pm.
For more details on these and other upcoming events, visit the Events page on the VLGA website at www.vlga.org.au
Now for the national news roundup
To Western Australia - the CEO of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, John Walker, has been suspended on paid leave, according to a media statement issued to the ABC. The Mayor John Bowler said an investigation is being conducted into allegations of workplace misconduct, and that no further comment would be made until the formal process was completed.
Mr Walker has been the council’s CEO since 2016. His contract was renewed last year for a further 5 years.
A commercial food waste trial in the City of Cockburn, WA will become a permanent service after diverting greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to powering an average household for 16 years in just a few months.
From 1st July this year, the service will be available to food retailers, producers and restaurants for an annual charge of $260.
The food waste will be converted to high quality bio-fertiliser and electricity to go back into the grid.
The successful trial was the first of its type in Western Australia, and was supported by a grant from the state government.
To Queensland, and Sunshine Coast Regional Council says construction of its innovative new underground automated waste collection system is complete and is moving into the commissioning stage.
The first system of its type in Australia, the facility has been built in the new Maroochydore City Centre. It will move waste and recyclables from businesses and public realm bins in the city centre through a 6.5km underground pipe network to a collection station, removing the need for collection trucks on streets.
The Council says the international technical experts who will commission the system have completed quarantine requirements, and will work towards having the system online by mid-year.
Townsville City Council’s Townsville Laboratory Services has retained national accreditation during a bi-annual audit, confirming its place amongst the leading laboratories in the country. The accreditation means the lab can continue to provide testing to other councils, residents and private companies.
In 2019, Townsville became the first local government in Australia to achieve accreditation for testing PFAS in water and wastewater.
Bayside and Georges River Councils in News South Wales will continue to combine their resources after a meeting of their mayors last week.
Both Councils have concluded that there are significant benefits to continuing the shared service approach that has been in place since prior to amalgamation, and they will now formalise it with a memorandum of understanding for the joint tender of waste collection services.
The councils have allowed for a two-year timeline, with the current joint waste collection contracts due to expire in February 2023.
Eurobodalla Shire Council in New South Wales has signed a landmark 10-year agreement to source the bulk of its energy from renewables from July.
Solar farms at Parkes and Griffith, and wind farms due to come online in 2024, will supply 80 percent of the Council's electricity needs for larger energy use sites.
The new agreement will reduce carbon emissions by the equivalent of removing 1,000 cars from the road each year. The Council’s goal is to source 100 percent of electricity from renewables by 2030.
Briefly: Cumberland City Council, NSW has released an updated economic statement to demonstrate progress towards a restoration of its financial situation. General Manager Hamish McNulty said the council has achieved savings of $3.4 million in six months, coming from employee cost savings and reduced functions and events due to COVID-19.
The Interim Administrator of Wingecarribee Shire Council, Viv May, has announced the resignations of two senior executives.
Mr May said the departure of Deputy General Managers Barry Paull and Mark Pepping was by agreement and all contractual obligations had been complied with. Acting arrangements have been put in place.
The departures follow the suspension of the Council by the State Government in early March for a period of three months.
And in Tasmania, the Devonport City Council will host a celebration for the city’s 40th birthday later this month. It was 1981 when Devonport became a city, which was celebrated with a visit from Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales.
The celebrations will take place on the 21st April.
And finally, some international news items of interest:
The Eden Strategy Institute has released its latest ranking of the Top 50 Smart City Governments around the world. The list scores cities on attributes such as vision, leadership, policies, talent and innovation, and is used to engage mayors around the world with assessing the readiness of their cities to facilitate and track smart city initiatives.
Three Australian cities feature on the list - Sydney at 18, Melbourne at 20, and Adelaide at number 31. The top 5 smart city governments are Singapore, Seoul, London, Barcelona and Helsinki.
In the UK, a new funding program has become available to Councils to train frontline staff who regularly come into contact with families facing conflict.
The 4 million pound fund is to help councils support parents and families experiencing severe relationship difficulties. The program is designed to resolve parental conflict that is below the threshold of domestic abuse
And I commend to you an article from the New York Times, which reports on a study of European cities that shows investments in cycling infrastructure can encourage bike commuting and a reduction in greenhouse emissions.
The research found that where cities have added bike infrastructure, cycling has increased by nearly 50 percent more than in cities that did not add bike lanes.
There’s a link to the article in the show notes, which in turn includes a link to the research which has been published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
And that’s your local government news roundup for now. Links to all of the stories referenced can be found in this episode’s show notes. Don't forget you can access extra content, with my interview with Cr Murray Emerson about the Stawell Underground Physics Lab available on the website.
You can access episodes and related information on the web at www.lgnewsroundup.com, or you can subscribe to the show with your preferred podcast provider.
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The Local Government News Roundup is brought to you by the Victorian Local Governance Association. Subscribe to the VLGA Connect series of interviews and panel discussions on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
Until next time, thanks for listening.