Cost shifting campaign | Election signage | Travel expenses | Local Government Reform Forum- Save the Date- 23 February | Election commitments | State election candidate update No Images? Click here Dear CEOs LGA CEO Matt Pinnegar Special weekly update from the LGA President Vol 3: Issue 4 - Monday 5 February 2018 Dear Mayors and CouncillorsThis weekend saw the launch of the Liberal Party election platform. It is now only 5 weeks to the time we know who we are working with for the next 4 years. Scary and exciting at the same time. I have had mixed comments from you about the number of local government candidates recruited from our councils. Putting aside that however, it leaves me thinking we can't really be all that bad if all parties want to poach our members! For those of you who would like to see a sample of our anti rate capping digital advertising campaign please click here. LGA President Mayor Lorraine Rosenberg Cost shifting campaign Cost shifting costs councils and rate payers millions of dollars every year, and in the next few weeks the LGA will launch a campaign highlighting the impact State Parliament and State Government decisions are having on council rates. This will run concurrently with our anti-rate capping campaign, and focus on taxes and levies such as the Solid Waste Levy, Rubble Royalties, and community housing rebates, as well as functions councils are legislatively forced to provide for the State, such as collecting the NRM Levy. These are issues that routinely come up at LGA Annual and Ordinary General Meetings and there is a clear mandate from members to raise public awareness of these cost pressures during the election campaign. The anti-cost shifting campaign will primarily be on social media and digital, as well as on radio. Cost shifting is adding an additional 1% or so on to council rates every year, and communities deserve to know where their rates are really going. Ultimately, our goal is to work with the next State Parliament to see them take back some of the costs they’ve previously transferred to councils. Cost shifting is blame shifting and we’ll be encouraging South Australian voters to consider whether their local pollie will cover the cost of their promises, or shift the cost to communities through council rates. Now is the time for us to stand together and send a clear message to all political parties that it's time to end the blame game. Election signage Nothing says “election time” like a corflute strapped to every available street light and stobie pole. However, there are rules around when signs can go up, and for this year’s state election, the earliest corflutes can be affixed to roadside infrastructure owned by DPTI and SAPN is 5pm Friday 16 February. They must then be removed within 48 hours of the polls closing on 17 March. Councils are authorised to contact parties and candidates that put up corflutes outside of the To avoid the election sign debacle we had at the Federal election, we are urging all candidates and parties to play by the rules and respect the guidelines that are in place. Further information can be found in our election signs general approval guidelines. Travel expenses The City of Salisbury recently passed a motion to report all overseas travel expenses on their website. This is a good example of our sector proactively increasing transparency around council operations, without the need for prescriptive and cumbersome legislative requirements. The LGA is currently working on a simple and effective model template that will be provided to all councils to provide a consistent platform for reporting the purpose and cost of interstate and overseas travel. I will provide a link to this document when it is completed, and councils are encouraged to voluntarily adopt this approach. We are continuing to progress with a proposed road map for local government reform that will be provided to all parties before the election, and I will provide more information on this in the next few weeks Local Government Reform Forum - 23 Feb '18Please mark Friday 23 February in your diary to attend the LGA’s Local Government Reform Forum at the Stamford Plaza. There is a lot going on in our sector at the moment and this event is a crucial opportunity to hear about the LGA’s work on future directions for reform, benchmarking, code of conduct, state election and more. Members will also be asked to provide direct input to the LGA’s advocacy agenda to ensure that we’re putting our resources into the issues that are most important to you. Further details and a program will be available shortly, but please save the date so that you don’t miss this important opportunity to help develop the advocacy program of your Association. Election commitments The past week has seen some major policy announcements from Labor and Liberal parties targeted at voters and businesses. The headlines have been dominated by Labor’s virtual power plant and the Liberal’s commitment to increase the payroll tax exemption. The LGA’s state election agenda ‘Uncapped Potential’ calls for policies that will enhance the competiveness of South Australia as a place to do business and to reduce the cost of energy. It’s somewhat disappointing that these policy announcements do not recognise the opportunity to work with local government as a partner in government, particularly in relation to energy policy. The LGA has worked with 43 councils to undertake high level energy efficiency audits that have identified huge potential for councils to play a role in local energy generation and storage. We are asking a future state government to support an energy productivity program to help councils to realise this potential to reduce energy costs, enhance local energy security and reduce carbon emmissions. The LGA is working to assess all announced party policies against the LGA 2018 State Election Agenda “South Australia. Uncapped Potential,” and will update assessments during the campaign at https://www.lga.sa.gov.au/stateelection. We also saw the Liberal Party release important policy statements earlier in the week on rural health and on preventive health. The regional initiatives were generally welcomed by country councils and the focus on preventive and health improvement is supported. On the latter it was disappointing to see no explicit mention of local government, a solution focused on additional or re-organised central bureaucrats (creating Wellbeing SA), and no program funding. A more effective commitment would be to support local councils in their public health and community wellbeing roles. The week also saw the first head to head debate between Premier Jay Weatherill, Opposition Leader Steven Marshall and SA Best leader Nick Xenophon at an SA Press Club lunch. I am grateful to Lord Mayor Martin Haese and Adelaide Hills Mayor Bill Spragg for testing the leaders with questions about cost shifting and State-Local relations. All leaders claimed in one way or another to be opposed to cost shifting and to understand the importance of State-local relations, particularly in our capital city. The responses given also reinforce that Labor and SA Best continue to oppose rate capping. State election candidate update There are already 50% more candidates from councils running in this year’s election than in 2014. I would encourage you to contact any – or all – of the candidates below to let them know what you think the key issues for our sector are, and how they can best assist and represent our communities. An updated list of candidates is below: Lachlan Clyne • Liberal • Badcoe • lachlan.clyne@sa.liberal.org.au John Woodward • Independent • Badcoe • badcoe2018@gmail.com Jassmine Wood • SA Best • Colton • jassmine.wood@sabest.org.au Karen Hockley • SA Best • Davenport • karen.hockley@sabest.org.au Carol Martin • SA Best • Enfield • carol.martin@sabest.org.au Kendall Jackson • Liberal • Frome • kendall.jackson@sa.liberal.org.au Kris Hanna • SA Best • Gibson • kris.hanna@sabest.org.au Tom Antonio • SA Best • Giles • tom.antonio@sabest.org.au Lynton Vonow • Greens • Heysen • heysen@sa.greens.org.au Andrew Stratford • SA Best • Kavel • andrew.stratford@sabest.org.au Paula Luethen • Liberal • King • paula.luethen@sa.liberal.org.au Steven Rypp • Liberal • Lee • steven.rypp@sa.liberal.org.au Andy Legrand • SA Best • Lee • andy.legrand@sabest.org.au Karen McColl • Liberal • Light • karen.mccoll@sa.liberal.org.au Hazel Wainwright • SA Best • Mawson • hazel.wainwright@sabest.org.au Peter Field • Labor • Morialta • peter.field@alp.org.au Stephen Patterson • Liberal • Morphett • stephen.patterson@sa.liberal.org.au Gary Johanson • SA Best • Port Adelaide • gary.johanson@sabest.org.au Sam Johnson • SA Best • LegCo • sam.johnson@sabest.org.au For further information or to submit |