Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak to the motion of the Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads that is before this place today, a motion that recognises the indispensable role that local governments continue to play in responding to the interests and needs of the local communities they serve. In particular, I want to put on record that I strongly support the amendment moved by the member for Grayndler, which proposes a referendum on extending constitutional recognition to local government.

Local government has long played a critical role in maintaining the standard of living and welfare enjoyed by all Australians. Local government serves as a conduit through which a wide range of local services are delivered, and it is often a key decision maker in the planning and development of local infrastructure, which is vital to the sustainability of a community’s existence and a community’s viability. In addition, local government also plays an active role in helping to foster a sense of local community spirit amongst residents, through its many community based programs, its festivals and the various other initiatives that it develops. Whilst we in this place are elected to represent the needs and interests of our constituents at the federal level, local government works at a more immediate and even intimate level as the tier of government that sits closest to the community. For this reason, local government is often able to respond more quickly, and thus more effectively, to the everyday needs of the residents it serves.

Because of the essential services that local government provides and because of the role that these services play in maintaining the quality of life enjoyed by those residents and communities that we are elected to represent in this place, it is incumbent on each and every one of us to support local government in any way we can. It is for this reason that I support the amendment moved by the member for Grayndler in this House, which was also moved in the Senate by the shadow minister for local government, Senator Carr. In essence, this amendment seeks to correct an anomaly in the Constitution, which, as it stands, currently does not recognise local government as an essential tier in Australia’s governance structures or as a key partner to federal and state governments in servicing the needs and wishes of Australia’s many and diverse local communities. By proposing a referendum to extend constitutional recognition to local government, the amendment moved by the member for Grayndler seeks to remedy this anomaly.

It is consistent with the recommendations made in the 2003 report by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration, a committee that was, of course—as has been said by previous speakers—chaired by the now Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Hawker. Without including the amendment moved by the member for Grayndler, the simple fact is that the motion before the House would fall far short of providing the sort of real and practical support that local government both needs and deserves, given the essential role it plays in the lives of Australians. Of the 18 recommendations contained in the 2003 report, only seven have been implemented in full by the government and, despite all its rhetoric about the importance and value of local government, it has taken the government almost three years to act on only a few of the report’s recommendations.

It is one thing for the government to put forward a motion that rightly recognises the importance of local government in the lives of all Australians, as well as the invaluable services that local governments provide and the extraordinary hours and effort that local councillors often volunteer above and beyond their call of duty, but without concrete structural reform, especially in the area of Commonwealth funding for local governments, these words of recognition and praise begin to ring sadly hollow. Without the introduction of concrete structural reforms to ease the financial pressures that local government across Australia continues to face, this motion simply offers local government a nod of recognition from afar, rather than a much-needed helping hand.

I support the amendment moved by the member for Grayndler because extending constitutional recognition to local government will provide a platform from which to initiate many of the funding reforms necessary to alleviate the financial hardships that local governments currently face, especially those relating to Commonwealth funding for local governments. This amendment offers us an opportunity to tackle the inadequate funding arrangements that continue to put unnecessary pressure on local governments across Australia and place unnecessary constraints on their effectiveness. It also offers an opportunity to overturn the last 10 years of government failure and neglect when it comes to supporting local government.

The lack of funding many local councils now face is a failure of government policy and yet another example of this government’s eschewed list of priorities. As the member for Prospect has already mentioned, financial assistance grants to local government as a percentage of Commonwealth tax revenue was 0.97 per cent in 1996. In 2006-07 it had fallen to 0.77 per cent, and by 2009-10 the figure is estimated to fall to some 0.75 per cent. In my own electorate of Calwell, only three to five per cent of the revenue used by the Hume City Council comes from federal government sources. In addition, amending the Constitution to recognise the role and importance of local government in Australia will also serve to strengthen the voice and broaden the involvement of local government in certain key decision-making processes, especially those relating to essential infrastructure needs and community services. For these and other reasons, I want to join with my colleagues in calling on the government to express bipartisan support for this amendment.

In the time I have left to speak on this motion, I want to take this opportunity to commend the tremendous work and achievements of the Hume City Council, which shares the same boundaries as my own electorate of Calwell. Proactive in its approach to the community, Hume City Council continues to play an indispensable role in fostering and shaping a strong sense of community spirit in our very diverse and multicultural municipality. Hume is home to over 150,000 people from around 130 ethnic groups, with over 28 per cent of our residents having been born overseas. As such, it is an area that is both culturally rich and ethnically diverse. It is of great credit to the Hume City Council that its many community programs and initiatives have sought to strengthen and celebrate this diversity, making the city of Hume not only a gateway to the city of Melbourne but a shining example of the success of multiculturalism in this country.

Hume City Council continues to host, in addition to many other community events, many festivals. Among our most prized series of events are the festivals we have in our municipality each year. There is the Roxburgh Park Harmony Day Festival and the Hume Winter Music Festival, which, over the last three years, has grown into a comprehensive month-long festival with a myriad of musical events that mirror the music and the sounds of the multicultural community that resides in Hume. The Broadmeadows Community Festival is another longstanding festival that each one of our residents in the municipality looks forward to on an annual basis.

Of course, our festival program would not be complete without the award-winning multicultural planting festival, which happens once a year. It is a great opportunity. Hundreds of members of our community take the opportunity to plant trees and to simply get on with the job of beautifying our municipality. Underpinning all of these festivals and activities is the celebration of our community’s cultural diversity. It is a cultural diversity that, although not unique to the city of Hume, is essentially what makes the identity of the city of Hume.

In addition, Hume council also hosts a series of interfaith festivals—in particular, our Islamic festivals in two weeks time. We celebrate the Eid festival, which is the breaking of Ramadan feast. They are significant festivals not only on the Islamic calendar but also on our city’s cultural and religious calendar. Hume City Council, in recognition of its interfaith community, has established a series of interfaith dialogues. But I would firstly like to speak about the multicultural issues forum established some five years ago by the Hume City Council. Its aim was to provide a voice for Hume city’s culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Each forum focuses on a particular issue. You would be interested to know, Mr Deputy Speaker, that some of the issues that are canvassed by the multicultural issues forum are transport, arts and cultural activities. Another issue is the great problem that our community faces with the proliferation of gaming venues in areas such as Hume, an issue that is very much at the forefront of public debate at the moment. Our issues forum spends a lot of time trying to work through gambling issues with our residents.

As I said, the Hume City Council also established its interfaith leaders network some five years ago. That network aims to further develop understanding and harmony across the many different faiths and cultures represented in Hume. Members of the network include leaders from a diverse range of communities and faiths, including the various Christian, Muslim and Sikh communities that exist in the Hume community. On a practical level, the council invites members of the interfaith leaders network to conduct the opening prayer at council meetings in a bid to lead by example in its efforts to actively promote community recognition and respect for different religions.

As an example of that, in July this year the prayer was led by Reverend David Peake from the Broadmeadows-Dallas Anglican church. In August, the prayer was led by Imam Mehmet Yoralmaz from the Broadmeadows Turkish Islamic cultural centre. In September the prayer was led by Reverend Paul Gray from the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa in Broadmeadows. In October the prayer was led by Captain Gary Grant from the Salvation Army in Craigieburn.

In addition, the council has set up the Hume Indigenous advisory committee, which includes representatives from the Gunung-William-Ballack Indigenous learning centre at Kangan Batman TAFE, alongside members of those organisations that provide services to the Indigenous community in Hume. Underpinning all activities of the Hume council is the Hume social justice charter, which was adopted in 2001, and the citizens’ bill of rights, which was adopted in 2004. The aim of the social justice charter and the bill of rights is to promote respect for each and every citizen, to strengthen community participation and wellbeing and to reduce the causes of disadvantage. Under the charter, the council strives to fulfil its vision for Hume city as a prosperous, progressive, sustainable and vibrant gateway city—a city distinguished by the diversity of its community and renowned for its social justice and community inclusion. Hume is a city marked by social equity, economic prosperity and environmental sustainability.

I am very proud to say that these are not just words; they are the driving ethos of the Hume City Council, which we have seen in practice with the council’s ongoing campaign to resist, for example, the federal government’s proposals to build a detention centre in Hume, the council’s continuing campaign for the reinstatement of an after-hours GP service at the Dianella Community Health Centre and with the many environmental and multicultural programs implemented by the council.

Evidence of the council’s success can be seen all around the community and has been acknowledged this year with Hume council winning the coveted 2006 Keep Australia Beautiful Sustainable Cities Award, recognising Hume city as Victoria’s most sustainable city. This year, the Hume council also won the 2006 United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day award for excellence in overall environmental management, which is further testament to the great work being undertaken by the council.

All this wonderful work that the Hume City Council does for its residents is an illustration of just how important the role of local government is to its community. I would like to end where I began, and that is by encouraging the government to recognise the valuable work and the special relationship that local government has with its communities and to give local government its due constitutional recognition. It is, after all, the level of government that is closest to the people. It struggles day to day to cope with the increasing responsibility that is placed on it to deliver services and to take up responsibilities that ordinarily one would think would be the responsibility of state and federal governments. In light of all that, I think that a strong case can be put for the importance of local government to be recognised constitutionally. I would like to urge the government to make the decision and to grant this recognition to a level of government which is so important to the lives of ordinary Australians.

Debate (on motion by Mr Prosser) adjourned.

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