Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on local government, part of my shadow portfolio. It was very interesting during the last election: Australia saw a rise in the prominence of the role of local government, with people such as Campbell Newman, who did an incredible job in Brisbane; Donna Stewart, in my area; and Mayor Taylor, in Toowoomba. Local government has become one of the most prominent mechanisms for delivery of services, with local knowledge back to local people. It is the representation of people on the ground. It is the form of government closest to the people. It is the greatest reflection of where our nation has moved to and how it has developed that now we have certain geographic interests that are entirely different to the interests that were present in 1901. The people of North Queensland feel a great affinity for North Queensland. If you want to get on the wrong side of the people of the Gold Coast, talk about Brisbane. It is likewise with the people of western Queensland. New England wanted their own state in 1967, and Newcastle was included in the referendum to try and knock it out. In the Riverina the situation is similar. There are greater numbers of people living in the northern part of Western Australia, the Kimberley, than there were before. There are real distinct geographical relationships between areas that, in some instances, are more closely tied to their association with local government than they are tied to a state capital many, many miles away.

As shadow minister for regional development, local government and water, I would like to take this opportunity to talk about a few issues pertaining to local government and to recognise the importance of this particular level of government. Local government in Australia is a dynamic and exceptionally diverse sector. There are over 500 councils throughout Australia, which range in size from Brisbane City Council, which is one of the largest in the world, with a population of around a million people, to the Jerilderie Shire Council in New South Wales, which has much smaller population of around 2,000. Local government is an exceptionally important level of government within Australia. It is local government that provides and maintains many of the essential services to our communities, through waste management, infrastructure maintenance and regional development, to name a few. The coalition is committed to building a new partnership between federal and local government across Australia. This partnership will recognise local government’s role as the jurisdiction closest to and most engaged with our local communities. The coalition is also dedicated to enhancing the Commonwealth’s direct financial relationship with local government. The coalition believes in continuing Commonwealth support to keep local government on a more sustainable financial footing and ensuring the states abide by their promise to avoid cost-shifting.

Financing for local government has been and will remain one of the principal challenges. If you do not have the resources, you will not be able to fix the transport, infrastructure and housing issues. It is always local government that can find you the cheapest way to do it, because of their knowledge on the ground of what they want, how to deliver it and how to get a good price for it. One of the other benefits of local government is, even if you have got a bad one, it does not operate the whole state; it just operates the section you are with—and you have a better chance of meeting local government members on the street and expressing your views clearly to them. A major challenge for local government is that the costs of maintaining what they are responsible for are increasing exponentially. For example, construction costs have been increasing at 10 per cent over the past three years. The rateable base for local government is clearly not going to match this pace. We need to make sure that we find alternative ways of maintaining the resources of local government.

The coalition remains a strong supporter of Commonwealth direct funding of local governments, and we will examine ways of strengthening the support that the Commonwealth can deliver to local governments. Since 2007 the federal Labor government has been strong on promises and weak on delivery to local government. Labor has no interest in genuine reform of federal-local relations. After the June 2010 meeting of the Australian Council of Local Government, which was really a talkfest between the Labor government and councils from across Australia, the Labor government failed to take action on key issues of concern that were raised by local government. The Labor Party has also failed to stop the erosion of local government planning powers by its state Labor colleagues. As a result, community involvement in development decisions continues to decline. This has resulted in increasing the development costs, with more oversight and more bureaucracy as people in state governments try to find themselves a job by putting more regulations on people they have never met before nor are likely to meet again in their lives.

The Labor Party has also failed to display long-term planning in its hasty school hall/flat screen/ceiling insulation stimulus package to local government. The Labor government has funded community assets with little thought as to how they will be maintained after stimulus payments are concluded. The Labor Party has also failed to stop its state Labor colleagues from cost-shifting at the expense of local government. The coalition successfully developed the intergovernmental agreement on cost-shifting that was signed in April 2006. Unfortunately, state governments continue to withdraw services, expecting local government to fill the gap, or to transfer state assets such as regional roads to local government and expect them to pick up the tab to manage them.

The coalition is committed to building a new partnership between federal and local government across Australia that recognises local government’s role as the jurisdiction closest to and most engaged with our local communities; enhances the Commonwealth’s direct financial relationships with local government; continues Commonwealth support to keep local government on a more sustainable financial footing and ensure the states abide by their promise to avoid cost-shifting; encourages improved professionalism in local government in such areas as governance, project delivery, financial and asset management and workforce planning as part of greater certainty in funding arrangements; supports the role of local government in the Council of Australian Governments, ministerial councils and cooperative planning with state and federal jurisdictions; recognises the capacity of local councils to be an alternative way to deliver Commonwealth funded initiatives; and supports efforts by local government to secure constitutional recognition and provide certainty regarding the powers of the Commonwealth to enter into direct financial relationships with local governments.

The coalition has a strong and impressive record of support for the delivery of services through local government. This includes direct federal funding to local government, now running at $2 billion per annum; establishment of infrastructure programs directly assisting the delivery of responsibilities partly or fully held by councils, such as Roads to Recovery and restoring the Black Spot Program; supporting local government communities with specific infrastructure initiatives such as the Sustainable Regions Program and the Regional Partnerships program, the latter funding more than 800 community projects across Australia; taking a stand against cost-shifting by the states and territories onto local government, commissioning the Hawker review and developing a new intergovernmental agreement; presenting a resolution in both houses of parliament to recognise local government’s integral role in the governance of Australia; and initiating a Productivity Commission study into local government’s revenue-raising capacity, providing a clearer understanding of the means by which local governments can raise their own revenue. If in power, the coalition will protect local government from cost-shifting by state governments, help councils deliver more efficient services and provide greater transparency in the use of taxpayer funds.

I would also like to take this opportunity to speak specifically, in more detail, about the goal of local government to gain constitutional recognition. As you may be aware, the Australian Local Government Association is currently working to achieve the inclusion of local government in the Australian Constitution. I praise the Australian Local Government Association for its hard work and persistence with regard to constitutional reform. Local government is currently not mentioned in the Australian Constitution. In general terms, state governments have sole responsibility for and authority over local government. Australia is yet to follow the lead of many other nations and recognise the roles and functions of local governments in our national Constitution.

The recent High Court decision in Pape v the Commissioner of Taxation 2009—and I have to admit that Pape, a member of my party, the National Party, certainly made things slightly more difficult with this one—has also put the need for constitutional change into sharper focus. The High Court decision in that case underlined the limitations of and uncertainties about the Commonwealth’s relationship with local government. The Commonwealth cannot spend money on whatever activities and objectives it likes. The judges’ commentary on the decision places some uncertainty over the basis for direct funding by the Commonwealth to local governments, such as Roads to Recovery, which is widely supported throughout so many areas of Australia. We know that people would want that program to be maintained. Another example is Labor’s Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program. Constitutional reform will remove this uncertainty and protect these vital local government funding sources.

The coalition supports the direct Commonwealth funding of local government and proposed to expand Commonwealth funding through a $300 million investment in bridges at the last election. The coalition therefore supports the appropriate constitutional recognition of local government to remove uncertainty about the constitutionality of direct Commonwealth funding to local government. At times we hear that 45 per cent of funding that goes from the Commonwealth to local government is taken by the states as administrative charges. This cannot go on. We cannot have a leach between us and where the funding needs to be spent.

The Constitution can be changed only in the following manner. A bill must pass through the House of Representatives and the Senate by an absolute majority—that is, 50 per cent of all members of the House of Representatives and the Senate must approve the proposed constitutional amendment. Practically, this means that there can be no constitutional change without the support of the government of the day. The question must then go to a referendum. The Australian Labor Party went into the election with a platform commitment to constitutional recognition of local government. It promised:

An important aspect of reform of the federation is to recognise and make more efficient the work of the third tier: local government. Labor has committed to a Council of Australian Local Governments to assist local government representatives to have a more effective voice at COAG. One of the first tasks of the new Council will be to develop a plan for a national referendum on the constitutional recognition of local government.

That was Bob McMullan in a federation reform program media statement of 6 September 2007.

It appears that there is bipartisan support for this reform. We need to develop a proposal for constitutional change that has broad support from government and the community, but it could involve as little a change as adding the words ‘and local government’ to section 96 of the Constitution so that it will read: ‘During a period of 10 years after the establishment of the Commonwealth and thereafter until the parliament otherwise provides, the parliament may grant financial assistance to any state and local government on such terms and conditions as the parliament thinks fit.’

As the closest form of government to the people, local government is a crucial element of Australia’s government structure. Many government programs could be delivered better if politicians listened more to the local knowledge and expertise that resides in local government. Recognition is essential to ensure that local governments can continue to deliver their vital services to each and every community across Australia. Therefore, the coalition is supportive of constitutional recognition of local government. Nonetheless, I note that a referendum on local government has failed twice already. It is important that the local government sector develop a detailed proposal which has widespread support. Ultimately, it does not matter what I say or what the coalition says. We need the people to support it for the referendum to succeed.

In the past 15 years we have seen more and more government responsibilities centralised in Canberra. This has been an understandable response to the failures of state governments, but Canberra cannot make all the decisions. If we do not make this change to recognise local government, we will just see the continuation of powers going from the states to Canberra, never to be seen again. We must start working on the diminution of this power and the movement of power back to the people, back to local government. For that to be able to happen, there must be a capacity for a conduit of funds from the federal government to local government.

Where local governments are such an important conduit is the on-the-ground concerns of everyday Australians. We need to respond to these concerns. We also need to understand that this is something they always talk about. Even this morning, they talked about issues in which they can look for bipartisan support. It was interesting to hear Mr Hawke and Mr Howard in a seminar that they gave after they had both left parliament. They were asked, ‘Is there one thing you could agree on?’ and this was something they could both agree on. Something they both said was, ‘If we had our time again, we would not be putting the lines on the map where we put them.’

This is a reality of where Australia is. The people of North Queensland want a greater association with Townsville, and we should be allowing them to do that. The people of the far north want a greater association with Cairns, and we should be allowing them to do that. The people of the Gold Coast want a greater association with the Gold Coast that does not necessarily come via Brisbane, and we should be allowing them to do that. The people of Tamworth want an association with Tamworth that does not come via Sydney, and the people of Wagga want an association with the Riverina that does not come via Sydney. I imagine it is the same in so many other areas. It is not a matter of removing the states; it is a matter of recognising that certain areas in the north of Queensland—such as Townsville, where there are 180,000 people, and Cairns, where there are 130,000-plus people—are completely different places than they were in 1901. For us to give those people this liberty and a capacity to express their desires in the form of government closest to them, we have to allow that form of government access to the funds to do it.