THE South Gippsland Shire Council was on a mission when they went to the Australian Local Government Association’s National General Assembly in Canberra in the past week.
When governments and companies are introducing major projects in local areas, or where local communities are heavily impacted, they want a set of rules established for minimum standards of consultation.
Where the offshore wind and associated high-voltage projects are concerned, this simply hasn’t happened to a proper standard.
At the main conference session, where hundreds of motions from many of the 537 councils around Australia were considered and debated, South Gippsland put up two motions that both received approval; one calling for minimum consultation requirements for projects that achieved ‘Major Project’ status and another calling on the government to ‘introduce road betterment with disaster funding’ so that roads weren’t just replaced after disasters, but ‘improved to a more resilient standard’.
“Using funds through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, it’s an opportunity not to just fix the roads impacted by storms and flooding in particular in our area, but to make good use of that money by improving the roads to a better standard,” said South Gippsland CEO Kerryn Ellis.
The Mayor Cr Nathan Hersey continued his campaign for better levels of consultation with local communities and local government, not only with the motion to the ALGA General Assembly, but also in meetings with Catherine King MP, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government and Senator Bridget McKenzie, the Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development.
“As well as speaking with Senator McKenzie about the need for consultation on offshore wind and the power infrastructure, we also raised some local issues including the need to fund two projects for Saputo and Burra Foods, which are important to their processing operations at Leongatha and Korumburra.”
Cr Hersey said the ALGA National Assembly and the 2023 Australian Council of Local Government meeting on Friday, the first time it had been held in 10 years, was an important opportunity to focus attention on issues being faced by Local Government, with the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the Minister for Local Government Catherine King and the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton among those attending and speaking at either the assembly or the ACLG meeting which followed on Friday.
South Gippsland’s motions
Motion number 44 South Gippsland Shire Council (Policy):
This National General Assembly calls on the Australian Government to develop minimum consultation requirements for projects that achieve Major Project Status: That the Australian Government, in partnership with state and territory governments, develop a community engagement framework, which includes local government authorities, to be imposed on proponents of projects that achieve 'Major Project' status.
National objective: Projects achieving major project status almost always have significant impacts on the communities they are located in. It is important that these communities feel major projects are happening with them, rather than to them.
There is an opportunity to improve and stipulate the requirements of consultation and engagement with these communities. This community connection also has the potential to improve and support these projects, potentially saving time and money. The Australian Government, in partnership with states and territories, must develop a community engagement framework imposed on the developers of projects which receive major project status.
The framework should detail expectations for all three levels of government (federal, state and local) to collaborate and participate in this engagement in a meaningful way.
Key arguments: This motion specifically relates to South Gippsland's current experiences and concerns relating to offshore wind development, which has received, 'Major Project' status from the Australian Government as well as being a focus of the Victorian state government, including achieving renewable energy targets and transition planning for Latrobe Valley and surrounds.
Motion number 44 South Gippsland Shire Council (Transport & Infrastructure):
South Gippsland Shire Council VIC This National General Assembly calls on the Australian Government to introduce road betterment with disaster funding: That the funding arrangements through Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) for recovery of roads and related infrastructure from natural disasters, allows for the road to be improved to a more resilient standard.
Speakers and sessions included:
- His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (RETD) Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia
- The Hon Catherine King Mp Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government
- The Hon Peter Dutton Mp Leader of the Opposition
- His Excellency Vasyl Myroshnychenko, Ambassador of Ukraine
- Jimmy Rees Content Creator | Social Media Personality
- Saul Griffith Engineer | Entrepreneur
- Jennifer Michelmore Chief Executive, Studio THI
- Lord Mayor Sally Capp, City of Melbourne
- Mayor Heather Holmes-Ross, City of Mitcham
- Mayor Karen Vernon, Town of Victoria Park
- Breakout session about the Voice with panelists: Mayor Ross Andrews, Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council, Mayor Matthew Ryan, West Arnhem Regional Council, Cr Esma Livermore, Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council, Mayor Phillemon Mosby, Torres Strait Island Regional Council.
- Emergency management session: Cyclones, Fires and Floods. Panelists Brendan Moon AM, Coordinator-General, National Emergency Management Agency, Mayor Peter Freshney, Latrobe Council and Mayor Samantha O’Toole, Balonne Shire Council.
- Australia’s Affordable Housing Crisis panel: Nathan Dal Bon, CEO, National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, and Wendy Hayhurst, CEO, Community Housing Industry Association.
- Cyber Security and Local Government: Clive Reeves, Deputy Chief Information Security Officer, Telstra Stephanie Crowe, First Assistant DirectorGeneral Cyber Security Resilience, Australian Cyber Security Centre Gary Okely, Head of JLT Public Sector – Pacific
- Building More Resilient Infrastructure Workshop: Presented by National Transport Research Organisation (formerly ARRB).
