From 2-4 July 2024, I was fortunate to attend the Australian Local Gov­ernment Association’s (ALGA) 30th National General Assembly (NGA) in Canberra. This was the first time I’ve had the opportunity to attend an NGA and wanted to share with you some of the is­sues and discussions that were had by more than 1200 elected members and local government em­ployees from all around Australia, who gathered together in our national capital.

The theme of the 2024 NGA was “Building Community Trust”, which acknowledges the critical importance of trust in our democracy’s different levels of government, its institutions, and amongst its citizens. The program featured a range of high profile and engaging speakers who explored ideas about what creates trust, and how we nurture it.

There were so many memorable highlights, including the historic first public speech of Australia’s new Governor General Her Excellency the Honourable Sam Mostyn AC.

Ms Mostyn summed up her aspirations for her role saying care had a deep and resonant place in Australia’s identity. She revisited that theme in her address to ALGA, saying local government was trusted because of its care and empathy for the community.

“It’s local government that is consistently the highest ranked level of government when it comes to community trust,” Ms Mostyn said.

“That’s why the themes of care, kindness and respect emerge so clearly as my focus, and no group understands what can be achieved through kindness, care and respect than all of you, you are all at the coalface of addressing challenges in the community.”

During the week, we also heard from Federal Ministers the Hon Catherine King MP and the Hon Kristy McBain MP, as well as Shadow Ministers the Hon Senator Bridget McKenzie and the Hon Darren Chester MP, and many outstanding keynotes and panellists.

The NGA highlighted how councils improve the lives of Australians every day in many ways that other levels of government simply can’t.

The Hon Catherine King MP, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government reminded us all of the complexities and ever increasing responsibilities of local government for local communities.

In Australia today, all 537 councils have different needs, different constituents, and different opportunities. But all councils have one thing in common – each and every council across Australia is feeling the pressure of delivering services in our local communities.

All councils are dealing with rising costs for goods and services. And are dealing with all these challenges at a time when our communities are under cost of living pressures, when state governments are increasingly relying on local government to provide services once the domain of state government, whilst local government struggles to minimise the costs being passed onto ratepayers.

Despite this acknowledgement by Minister King, the value of the Australian Government’s Financial Assistance Grants provided to local government has declined over the past three decades from around 1 percent of Commonwealth taxation revenue to just 0.4% percent.

The playgrounds, parks, roads, bridges, sports facilities and community centres that create healthy, sustainable, productive and liveable communities are built and managed by local governments. We create jobs, build social cohesion, support lifelong learning, improve local amenity, and support every aspect of Australians’ lives. Together, we do this on only around three percent of the nation’s taxes.

Financial Assistance Grants are particularly valuable for local government, as the funding is untied, meaning it can be spent where it is most needed. This can include building new infrastructure, delivering new programs that meet community needs, as well as maintaining e.g. sports grounds, parks and roads.

The NGA involved much discussion and advocacy around restoring the financial assistance grants to one percent, so that infrastructure and services delivered by local governments at the local community level can be maintained and wherever possible lifted up.

Brighton Mayor
Leigh Gray