Steve Gibbons (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is directed to the Prime Minister. I ask: how is the government working to forge a new alliance with Australia’s system of local government?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. I know that in his community the role of local government is particularly important, as the role of local government is across our nation. Today the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, and the President of the Australian Local Government Association, Paul Bell, and I announced that here, in late November, we would convene the first meeting of the Australian Council of Local Governments. That will be an important gathering, because we hope it is going to bring together representatives from each of this nation’s 565 local councils.

The reason we are doing this is that local government is one of the critical arms of the fabric of this country’s administration. We talk about reforming the federation; that is important. That is the relationship between Canberra and the states. But the missing third arm of this administrative arrangement in Australia is local government. That is why we need to make sure that we have a proper consultative arrangement with local government into the future. We need to make sure that the infrastructure responsibilities of local government can be delivered at the local level. There was a report in recent times by the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers which found that there was a $1.13 billion annual underspend on infrastructure renewal at the local government level and a $14.5 billion backlog in infrastructure renewal work. We regard local governments as partners with the Australian national government’s nation-building program for Australia, because state governments are critical in this respect; and local governments also have a critical role to play. That is why we wish to bring the heads of local government to Canberra to engage them on our future strategy.

Local government across Australia performs a critical function. The numbers speak for themselves: 657,000 kilometres of road across Australia; $150 billion-plus worth of invested infrastructure across Australia, under the control of local government; activities worth some $22 billion a year, employing some 168,000 people. Local government has to become much more of a central part of the national affairs of this country. The government, through the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government and through others, intend to take that challenge seriously. Therefore, prior to the election we committed ourselves to the establishment of an Australian Council of Local Governments. We now, with the statement today, honour that commitment. Come the end of November we will convene in the Great Hall of this parliament representatives from each of those 565 local authorities. Two specific matters, and possibly a third, will be on the agenda. One is: how do we the national government now partner with local authorities in their local infrastructure needs in the future? This is a critical area for the future. It is a critical area needing reform; it is a critical area needing extra financial assistance to underpin that reform. That is agenda item No. 1.

Agenda item No. 2 is the particular needs—the planning needs, the development needs, the urban design needs—of our major cities. As I travelled across the country, as I am sure my colleague the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government has, and saw the state of public transport across Australia and the other critical urban design needs of our major cities, I acknowledged that it is a crying shame what needs to be done, what needs to be invested and that is why, in part, we have our nation-building fund as well.

The third item is this: prior to the last election we undertook to provide constitutional recognition for local government. In doing so, we intend to get the direct views of local government about what form that should take. Rather than Canberra handing down to the states a form of language to be put to a referendum we would much rather engage with local government on the most appropriate language to be considered for inclusion, by way of amendment, in our Constitution.

This is a significant new area of national reform for the government: firstly, to ensure that we have a regular, annual national Australian Council of Local Governments meeting here in Canberra with the full cabinet of the Commonwealth; secondly, to use that as a means to reform the way in which the national government delivers infrastructure funding and assistance to local government; and, thirdly, to look particularly at the language—

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Morrison interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Cook is warned!

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

that we will then subsequently put to the people by way of constitutional change. This is an important area of national reform for the nation. Nation building is the business of this government, including what we do out of Canberra, what we do with the states, whether they be Labor or Liberal, and what we also do with local government, whether they be Independent, Labor or Liberal. Nation building transcends party politics.