Building stronger regions, stronger local governments
Report by Regional Economic Development Associates
Download the entire report (PDF 830 kb)
Executive summary
This paper, Building stronger regions, stronger local governments, developed out of a series of Forums, which discussed issues associated with increased involvement of local government in natural resource management (NRM).
There is a high degree of expressed willingness by local government to engage with NRM regional bodies. This project should be used as a catalyst to effect greater involvement of local government in NRM activities across Australia. In a general sense, local government is the "missing link" in NRM and this situation needs to be remedied.
For some in local government the involvement in NRM has been ongoing for many years with significant levels of involvement predating the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) and the National Action Plan on Salinity and Water Quality (NAP). In that context the concept is to expand the role, not put a new role in place. However, there are large sections of local government in which NRM is not a core agenda item and is not well understood.
LG should initiate the development of a clear, shared vision, in the nature of a detailed 'specification', of its involvement in NRM. There is a confusion and uncertainty in relation to roles and functions. These need to be clarified, formalised and then communicated to all NRM co-investors and stakeholders. The development of this shared vision or 'specification' of local government's role will take time and considerable effort to evolve and receive the requisite agreement. It is important that this task receive proper support, commitment and leadership. ALGA and state/territory local government associations will have crucial leadership roles in this task.
There are a number of follow-up actions which flow from the development of a shared vision for LG involvement in NRM and the clarification and formalisation of roles and functions of local government in the NRM context.
In summary, the recommended actions are as follows:
- Develop a clear, shared vision (ie 'specification') for local government involvement in NRM at the regional level, state/territory level and national level, building on the expressed willingness by LG to engage with NRM regional bodies and the recognition of local government as the third tier of government in Australia and co-investor in NRM.
- Formalise local government's involvement in NRM at the regional level through nationally consistent but regionally specific agreements between local government groupings and the NRM regional bodies.
- Align local government planning and development activities with NRM regional planning and investment strategies.
- Develop appropriate local government performance measures within the context of the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework to cover all aspects of LG's involvement in NRM, including service delivery.
- Develop a specific plan to clarify and communicate the roles of local government in regional NRM.
- Undertake a review of the local government funding of NRM activities to determine if there is any evidence of cost shifting towards local government.
- Seek urgent discussion with the Australian and state/territory governments in relation to funding and resourcing issues associated with local government's strengthened role in NRM at the regional level.
- Make an immediate start on a project aimed at resolving the mismatches of local government boundaries and the boundaries of NRM regions across Australia.
- Clarify responsibilities in relation to statutory and regulatory functions as between local government and the NRM regional bodies on a consistent basis state by state and in the Northern Territory.
- Seek inclusion of local government skills in the governance and priority setting processes associated with the delivery of NRM at the regional level.
- Encourage increased project collaboration between local government and NRM regional bodies on regional NRM activities.
- Work towards, through a well designed and targeted capacity building initiative to be led and co-ordinated by the local government Facilitators, a local government culture which has NRM as a central element of both strategy and activity.
- Build in clear roles and functions for local government Facilitators to assist in the strengthening of local government's involvement in NRM at the regional level.
- Undertake annual reviews of progress in relation to points 1 to13 above.
The above actions will need to be implemented at the appropriate levels. Some actions are clearly focussed at the national level which would imply leadership roles for ALGA and the Australian government. Others are focussed at state/territory and regional levels which would draw in state/territory local government associations and state/territory governments and of course NRM regional bodies with various mixes of leadership and contributory roles.
Download the entire report (PDF 830 kb)
