5 June 2012
The release of the Destination 2036 Action Plan by the Minister for Local Government raises some important options for structural models and for defining roles between local and state governments, says the Urban Taskforce.
Overall the action plan does not give any real answers but seems to delegate responsibility to various organisations to look further at different options, says Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson. There are however a number of interesting options for structural models that hold some promise. The two tier model with local and regional councils, the more formalised regional service delivery and the shared administration models all indicate an approach that understands the need for both local and regional responsibilities.
The initiative to define the roles of local and state governments only touches on this important area. In relation to planning there is some discussion on the role of Regional Organisation of Councils (ROCs) in regional planning but no mention of the Joint Regional Planning Panels (JRPPs).
With a number of councils in an economically unsustainable situation it is important to reduce rather than increase their roles and this is likely to see a rebalancing of both local and regional activities where the state government must be more involved.
The Urban Taskforce looks forward to interacting with the Independent Review Panel where many of the actions have been referred to. It is however important that this panel works closely with the planning review currently underway.
