Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I represented the people of Werriwa in this parliament, I was a councillor for eight years at Liverpool City Council. One thing you learn quickly as a councillor is that local government is far more than the three Rs of rates, roads and rubbish. Local councils build communities. They consult and provide great services and facilities. They play a critical role in community engagement, facilitating and bringing together residents, community groups and important services to build stronger, healthier communities.

One such project is the 2168 Children's Parliament, which had its fourth and final sitting of the current parliament last week. As I've spoken about in the House previously, I had the great privilege of being an ambassador. The initiative is delivered under the Commonwealth government early intervention and prevention initiative and is part of the 2168 Strong Children and Communities Project, supported by Liverpool City Council, the NSW Department of Education and Mission Australia. The 40 student parliamentarians come from local primary schools in the 2168 postcode in my electorate. They've met regularly over the school year in workshops, presentations and parliamentary sittings. The children took advantage of their unique position and audience to tackle the big issues of traffic, bullying, drug and alcohol abuse and renewable energy. While the program has already delivered some great outcomes, I think the full benefit of the program will only be realised in the years and decades to come. Who knows? We might see future councillors, mayors and MPs amongst these bright, inquisitive leaders of tomorrow.

Local government also plays a key role in the arts. In my home community, they fund and resource important cultural institutions, such as the award-winning Campbelltown Arts Centre and Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. There are venues that host theatre of an exceptional quality—from world-class names to hardworking local volunteer ensembles, from modern suburban comedies to Shakespeare and the classic myths and sagas from the many cultural groups that make up my electorate.

On Saturday, the Casula Powerhouse announced the winners of the Mil-Pra AECG Award, which acknowledges and celebrates the significant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture in my region. I'd like to congratulate Leanne Tobin and Shane Smithers for respectively winning the acquisitive Maria Lock Award and the acquisitive Mayor's Choice Award. The weekend before, Hedar Abadi took out the top prize in the Liverpool Art Society exhibition. Hedar arrived in Liverpool as a refugee and now regularly exhibits his works.

Councils, through their arts and cultural programs, help us tell our local stories. Through doing this, they build stronger local communities. This is despite the cost shifting and inadequate funding to the arts, especially in Western Sydney. While Western Sydney has 10 per cent of Australia's population, it attracts only one per cent of federal and just over five per cent of New South Wales cultural, arts, heritage and events funding. This is simply inadequate. As the work of the Campbelltown Arts Centre, the Casula Powerhouse and artist like Hedar Abadi show, the stories of Western Sydney aren't second-rate or inferior. They are richly diverse, they are important and they need to be told.

In addition to inadequate funding, council also faces cost shifting from both tiers of government. The peak body for councils in my state, Local Government New South Wales, estimates that cost shifting by state and federal governments cost councils upward of $800 million for the financial year 2015-16. A recent report found that the total amount of cost shifting comes in at about $30 million for Liverpool and $8 million for Campbelltown City Council. Further, councils in my region have been hit hard by the freeze between 2014 and 2017 on the financial assistance grants from the federal government. Liverpool City Council lost just under $3.5 million, Campbelltown almost $3.8 million and Fairfield just over $3.7 million. Initiatives like the Black Spot Program and the Bridges Renewal Program make a contribution, but the federal government can and should do more to assist our local councils. The need is made more acute in New South Wales, where the local government sector has faced the additional challenge of a hostile state government. The New South Wales government has forcefully merged councils, stripped away decision-making powers of councillors and overridden local government controls in the name of progress and reform.

Local government is the closest form of government to the people. It does fantastic work building strong and healthy communities, but it could do so much more, more effectively, if it was properly resourced and supported by other levels of government, especially the federal government.

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