Council capability is the focus
The Local Government Review aims to achieve better services and outcomes for all Tasmanians, writes Sue Smith
THIS week saw the release of the Local Government Board’s ‘Stage 1’ Interim Report on the Future of Local Government Review.
The Tasmanian government has asked the board to comprehensively review the role, function, and design of local government in Tasmania so that councils can deliver the best possible community services and outcomes in the future.
Stage 1 of the Review commenced in January and was all about community engagement and fact finding, and we have been encouraged by how the local government sector, stakeholders and the broader community have engaged in a genuine and positive way.
Our interim report outlines what we have learned so far and sets out an overall vision for the future of the sector we hope the Tasmanian community can and will rally behind.
Now we want to hear from the community if we have got that vision right. To help, we have developed an online engagement portal where the public can explore the report, respond to our consultation questions, and share their views on the future role of councils.
You can access the portal
www.engage.futurelocal.tas.gov.au
And now to address the ‘elephant in the room’ – council amalgamations.
The board is approaching the review from the perspective of improving council capability, rather than through the narrow lens of ‘cost efficiency’ alone.
That is not to say that there may not be better or more efficient ways of delivering some services. We think there are likely to be a
range of areas where greater scale economies could deliver better value and higher quality services.
The board remains open to all options at this stage, including the potential for fewer, larger councils.
But we do not want to focus all our attention on council amalgamations as the only possible pathway to reform, nor pretend mergers will be the ‘silver bullet’ to address all the challenges.
We also want to consider new and innovative service consolidation and resource sharing models which could deliver a better balance between local responsiveness and service efficiency.
Ensuring that all our councils can deliver on the things that matter most in an effective, efficient and sustainable way will require a re-set in our thinking and a collaborative effort to design a system that can deliver that vision.
So, in Stage 2, let’s keep working together to shape the future of local government.
To learn more, visit www.futurelocal.tas.gov.au