FINALLY, the message seems to have gotten through to the Federal Government that there is a better way of going about achieving value for money when it comes to the huge reconstruction task following natural disasters in Queensland.  Councils have argued with Canberra for the better part of two years over the folly of having to bring in contractors _ invariably a more expensive option than using their own workers _ to ensure post-disaster work does not breach the rules governing Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements.  Despite LGAQ President Paul Bell and others extracting small concessions from the Government last year to ensure jobs were not lost, confusion over the application of NDRRA to day labour remained. Now another breakthrough, and it seems as though it's a big one.  The Government has agreed to introduce a Local Government Value for Money pricing model, which will allow the use of day labour under NDRRA provided councils can convince the Queensland Recontsruction Authority that it is the best value option. Time will tell whether this solves the problem completely but it is a promising turn of events to say the least. The Government's change of heart follows a visit to north Queensland by Attorney-General Nicola Roxon some weeks ago. Thanks to some plain talking by mayors and councillors, Ms Roxon left town under no illusion about how big a problem the uncertainty over day labour presented to regional communities.

One of the quieter but undeniably positive announcements of the 2012 Federal Budget was the $4.8 million dedicated to improving the capacity of the Bureau of Meteorology to respond to severe weather events such as those that caused such devastation to scores of Queensland communities in 2010 and 2011. To quote Budget paper No. 2:

"The Government will provide $4.8 million in 2012-13 to improve the Bureau of Meteorology’s frontline regional severe weather and flood forecasting capabilities. The measure is in response to a review of the Bureau of Meteorology’s capacity to respond to future extreme weather and natural disaster events and to provide seasonal forecasting services. The cost of this measure will be partially met from within the existing resourcing of the Bureau of Meteorology''.

That is a win for the councils that lobbied for such funding, although it is telling that the bureau will have to find at least some of the funding itself rather than rely on extra cash from Treasury.

Another lesson from last year's disasters will be far more costly to heed and therefore will need to be argued with teh Federal Government a lot longer.  That is the need for a smarter appoach to disaster mitigation.  Building levees and sea walls and generally reshaping communities to strenghten their resileince to natural disasters contains upfront costs that could run into hundreds of millions of dollars, but in the long term it may end up being cheaper than simply throwing money at disaster recovery.

This idea was given added urgency this week when Suncorp Insurance announced it would no longer offer flood cover for the communiites of Roma and Emerald.

It's time all levels of government thought long and hard about whether the traditional policy approaches to helping communitiies cope with disaster need reform.

The fresh new batch of mayors and councillors elected across Queensland at the weekend will barely have time to set down the champagne glasses before beginning the hard scrabble of improving the lot of their local communities. Budget deliberations loom large as the priority order of business for all councils, with the delayed elections ensuring there will be even more of a sense of urgency for councillors eager to get an idea of what financial shape their communities are in. One of the first things they will learn is that the costs of providing infrastructure and services to their communities bear little relation to movements in the general consumer price index. Prices for materials such as concrete and bitumen and other construction costs tend to be higher the more councils compete with resources companies and the like for reliable supplies. Another thing new entrants to local government will learn is that the limited financial support from the federal and state governments is unlikely to provide the solution to meeting those higher costs.  Some hard decisions loom for those 40 or so new mayors who have just won the political support and trust of their communities.

A lot has been said about the high turnover of mayors and councillors expected at Saturday's elections, so much so that a far more positive aspect of this poll is in danger of being overlooked.  The 2012 Queensland Local Government elections have a record share of women candidates standing for office. Of the 1531 people who have put their hand up to be either mayor or councillor on Saturday, 447 are women.  While that number is lower than the last council elections, when 469 women candidates stood, it still breaks records in terms of the percentage of women running for council this time.  And when it comes to mayoral races by themselves, the picture is even clearer. There are 56 women standing for the position of mayor compared with just 46 in 2008.  For more analysis of Saturday's contest, go to www.lgaq.asn.au.  And don't forget LGAQ will be running a vitrual tally room on Saturday night.  Just go to the website for updates and analysis of regional and statewide trends.

New Queensland Premier Campbell Newman announced his first Cabinet with a rundown of its regional representation.

Five of the 18 new ministers were from Brisbane, he said. Three from the Gold Coast, four from the Sunshine Coast, two from Wide Bay Burnett, three were from west of the great Dividing Range and two were from north Queensland, he announced.

A full rundown of the new ministry as well as other parlimaentary positions can be found by clicking here.

"This is a Ministry for all of Queensland because it's made of representatives of all of the regions,’’ he said. "All members of the Ministry will be working hard for Queensland - to grow a four pillar economy, lower the cost of living by cutting waste, revitalise front line services, deliver better infrastructure and planning and restore accountability to government.’’

"I pledge to the people of Queensland that we will not let you down."

Of most interest to local councils is the appointment of David Crisafulli, the former deputy mayor of Townsville, as Local Government Minister. Mr Crisafulli, the new MP for Mundingburrra, entered local council in 2004 after a career as a journalist. Other appointments of interest to the local government sector include Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney’s as Minister for State Development, Infastructure and Planning, with new MP Ian Walker as his Assistant Minister for Planning Reform.
Mr Walker, widely known in planning, property development and local government circles, was managing partner of Rose Norton before he entered parliament as the MP for Mansfield.
The new Cabinet is built around the LNP’s pledge to strengthen what it has referred to as the “four pillars’’ of the state economy _ agriculture, mining and resources, property and construction, and tourism.
Before the poll, Campbell Newman indicated he expected the local government sector to play its part in growing the economy.
Indeed, Mr Newman’s comments and the LNP’s specific pledges hold out the prospect of the relationship between local councils and George St growing warmer in the coming months.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland is this morning finishing the job of compiling the list of candidates for the 28 March local government elections.  As I write the list is not complete, but there are already some surprises.  Logan Mayor Pam Parker has no one running against her and so is returned unopposed to head one of the fastest growing cities in Australia. In Ipswich, half of the council has been returned unopposed. Central Highlands Mayor Peter Maguire is back after no one else put their hand up to do the job. LGAQ Presdent Paul Bell has gone on radio this morning saying that the timing of the elections, shifted to 28 April for the political convenience of the ousted Bligh state government, has played a part in this outcome. Outgoing Quilpie mayor David Edwards has blamed the Bligh government's constant assault on local government powers. For the complete list of candidates, keep an eye on the ECQ's website.

One of the Bligh Government's final decisions before entering caretaker mode was to exempt schools and hospitals from their obligation to seek council approval for any new buildings or building extensions on their grounds.  The decision, announced by the Premier no less, was contained in a 17 February press release. Never mind that the involvement of councils in these decisions allows the needs of the wider community to be considered in what are usually substantial developments.  Ensuring this community involvement as a matter of course would also avoid the mistakes of the Bulding the Education Revolution construction program, whose exemption from the usual council input resulted in situations where new school halls were built over sewer lines and setbacks were ignored. But the Government chose to see a problem where none existed and has now completely cut councils out of the decision making on such developments. Given that local governments will now have little prior knowlege of how school developments will affect forward planning in regard to such things as roadworks and water treatment, the implications of the Government's move on local infrastructure budgets is likely to be profound.  For the record, the LGAQ said the decision showed an appalling disregard for community consultation. The LNP also condemned the Government's lack of transparency.

One of the unsung stories of the local government response to the devastating gfloods and cyclones of last summer was the work of council animal management officers. Staff worked around the clock to round up stray animals and reunite pets with their disstressed owners. Lockyer Valley Regional Council staff managed to find all but one of 12 pets lost by one resident at the height of the flash flooding on 10 January. But the lesson learned was that there should be some formal arrangements governing the handling of pets during natural disasters.  So, LGAQ and the RSPCA have signed a memorandum of understanding to ensure animals are properly dealt with during disasters. For details on the MOU, click here.  And read how the media has covered the MOU by clicking here.

The news this morning that Air Services Australia is struggling to cope with the sheer volume of flights carrying mining and energy project staff to their place of work shows that, while some parts of the economy remain in the doldrums, others have not skipped a beat. Deputy Premier and Treasurer Andrew Fraser released new figures this morning showing how much the state is relying on the resource sector at the moment to boost economic activity. The pressure that a growing fly-in, fly-out workforce will put on southeast Queensland and other regions has until now been a minor part of the debate over the mining boom.  But, as the state's growth shifts back into high gear, the old dilemmas about housing density, traffic congestion and services stretched to capacity are likely to return to the fore. This was more than evident at The Courier-Mail's latest Planning for Growth public forum this week. LGAQ chief executive Greg Hallam spoke at the forum along with Urban Land Development Authority chief Paul Eagles and Brisbane City Council planning chair Amanda Cooper. Have a look at what was said by clicking here. 

Greetings from the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, the venue for LGAQ's 115th annual conference.  About 660 mayors, councillors, executive officers and observers have registered for the conference so here's looking forward to a busy and informative three days.  One of the guest speakers at the conference this year is John Tizard, director of the London-based Centre for Public Service Partnerships. He knows intimately the agenda of localism being pursued by the UK Government, as well as the pressure local councils there are feeling to engage in deep budget cuts to cope with a feeble economy. His message to councils has been to avoid giving in to the temptation to adopt political timidity and make bold decisions aimed at ensuring their communities have the resilience to manage in tough economic times. Have a read of some of his thoughts here.  He also has an interesting take on the trend towards UK councils considering the adoption of an "executive chairman" model for mayors.  Read it here. Tizard will be addressing the conference tomorrow morning.

The Bligh Government released several new growth management plans and strategies this week, saying they were in repsonse to the state's continued rapid population increase.  There was the Queensland Regionalisation Strategy, the Queensland Infrastructure Plan and the Bruce Highway Upgrade Strategy. Each has come in for some praise _ and some criticism _ but despite distractions like the carbon tax, debt levels and an increasingly rancorous daily political debate, the Government should be congratulated for not being distracted from the main policy game in Queensland: growth management.

That said, the glaring omission from what the Government wants us to see as a substantial policy offering is anything resembling a population policy. Like an anxious contestant on Masterchef, the Government has strode into the policy kitchen and got to work but amid the clouds of flour and clatter of pots and pans has lost track of who it is cooking for. Despite saying quite a lot about growth management in recent months, without a distinct population policy the Government can only claim to have a vague idea of how all these strategies are going to influence the shape and pace of population growth in Queensland. Its case is not helped by essentially meaningless phrases like this one contained at the front of its regionalisation strategy document:

"With a population forecast to grow to 7 million people by 2031, Queensland continues to prosper''. 

But will that prosperity survive if, say, population growth is heavily concentrated in the southeast corner of the state?

More than a year ago, an expert panel commissioned by the LGAQ and headed up by leading demographer Professor Peter McDonald, urged the Government to adopt a population policy to deal with ongoing problems of growth such as labour market stress, housing affordability and sustainable development. While there is a lot of policy work going on in these areas there is little to indicate that anyone is adopting an overarching view to ensure all this work relates to a central narrative. Nor (perhaps understandably given this stage of the electoral cycle) is there much of an appetite for making hard decisions like decentralising state departments and bureaucracies to encourage sustainable employment growth in the regions.

You can read the Population Inquiry's final report by clicking here. A year on, it makes more sense than ever.

The Gillard Government yesterday released details of its carbon tax package and the debate over whether it will lead to a reduction in carbon emissions has already reached fever pitch. Read a summary of its impact on local government by clicking here. But while the politics of the carbon tax will likely dominate the federal agenda for some time to come, its release at least allows the climate change debate to expand its horizons.  Up until now, public discussion on climate change in Australia has been largely limited to how government and communities can mitigate against its impact by reducing emissions.  But there is another aspect of this country's response to climate change that needs attention: adapting to the inevitable impact that events like sea level rise and more frequent violent weather patterns will have on our daily lives.

At last week's Asia-Pacific Cities Summit in Brisbane, the talk was not so much about the carbon tax as it was about what cities need to do to ensure communities and businesses are best equipped to thrive while the climate around them goes through upheaval.  While the carbon tax will have a big impact on the work of local government, climate change adaptation is where councils _ as opposed to federal and state governments _ will need to take the lead.   In Australia, there are more than 700,000 homes and businesses within 3 kms of the coastline and on land that is less than 6 metres above the current sea level.  Their vulnerability to climate change will, of course, depend on sea level rise but it is fair to assume that a large proportion of those addresses are at some risk.

What to do? First of all, it's worth putting the efforts of the local govenrment sector to reduce its carbon footprint in some context. Scott Losee, the technical director of sustainability and climate change at Aecom consultants, told last week's summit that while Australia accounted for 1.5 percent of the world's emissions, Brisbane accounted for just 3 percent of Australia's emissions and Brisbane City Council accounted for just 2 percent of Brisbane emissions. So while some councils, including Brisbane, are leaders in adopting policies to reduce carbon emissions, the affect of such policies on a global scale will be minimal.

But it's a very different story when the focus turns to what councils are doing in response to threats from actual or projected climate change.  As Losee says, mitigation must be global but adaption to climate change must be local.

The hole that Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser is digging for himself over water prices will soon be deep enough for his Government to build Traveston Dam after all.  Mr Fraser's latest attempt to dupe people into believing his Government shares no blame for the unpopularity of southeast Queensland's water supply reforms came in the form of this press release. He claimed no council wanted to take back responsibility for their water services when in fact the Gold Coast City Council had written to the Government saying it wanted to split from its retailer, Allconnex. Given the long hue and cry over Allconnex in the local Gold Coast media, the Treasurer must have been the only person in southeast Queensland not to know this. Mr Fraser's release was a classic example of how his Government wants to make all the rules on water prices and then not follow them. The truth is that while the Government has forced councils to cap retail prices at the inflation rate, the opposite is the case for the cost of Government-owned bulk water, which will keep on skyrocketing. The impact of that is explained in this article in The Courier-Mail. 

The numbers that accompany any explanation of Queensland's ongoing resources boom are stagering no matter how often you hear them. The LGAQ's Supporting Resource Regions position paper estimated that by 2020, the resources sector will be contributing about $42 billion worth of economic activity to the state and generating nearly $5 billion in royalties.  But, as councils in the Bowen and Surat basins can attest, communities risk copping the downside of this boom.  The whole point of the Supporting Resources Regions paper was to push for policy, legislative and funding changes to ease the pressure on communities finding themselves in the middle of a 21st century version of the heady gold rush days. We're still waiting to see if the Government heeds the paper's message but, thanks to primary Industries Minister Tim Mulherin, it at least acknowledges the need to talk about these pressures. Today, LGAQ president Paul Bell gave a speech to a special industry forum in Taroom outlining the issues that need to be tackled in these regions.  He stressed the value of councils working with the Australian Government's Regional Development Australia committees in ensuring the economic and social infrastructure is provided to help communites cope with what's heading for them.  As "Belly'' says, the challenges of dealing with today's two-speed economy makes it crucial that RDAs and councils forge strong partnerships with each other.

 Thinking of running for local government? Well, Deputy Premier and Local Government Minister Paul Lucas has an offer you''ll find difficult to refuse.  The Department of Local Government and Planning will be running a series of seminars across the state aimed at informing people about the obligations of being a councillor and how to nominate for the local government elections next March.  For details, click here.

When he announced the seminars in State Parliament this week, the Deputy Premier had this to say:

"The Bligh government is serious about the role of local government in Queensland and the importance of quality candidates for local government elections. We will continue to assist councils, and the vibrant regions that make up the fabric of our great state, to become stronger and more sustainable in the future. This government is committed to ensuring we have quality councillors to represent local communities''.

So why not give it a go....

Budget speculation _ be it at a federal, state or local level _ has begun in earnest despite the distractions of royal weddings and raids on terrorist leader hideouts.   The message coming out of both Canberra and George St is that there's not a lot of money to spread around and spending cuts will be the order of the day.  Whatever is revealed when Wayne Swan and Andrew Fraser make their respective announcements in coming weeks, chances are it will have some impact on local councils.  And then the councils themselves have to come up with their own budgets.  LGAQ has already advised that councils across the state are facing average cost increases of 7.5 percent.  That is unsurprising given the price hikes that councils have had to deal with as well as the impact of government decisions on things like infrastructure charges and water prices in southeast Queensland.  Little wonder that the cost of living is the principal political issue of the moment at all three levels of government.

But as councils struggle with the political implications of having to do more with less, they might take some solace in the fact that local governments in other parts of the world are doing it tough, too.  In the United Kingdom, recent analysis of the local government sector has found that all councils have had to do their share of belt tightening. Staff levels have fallen by 1.5 percent compared with an overall public sector increase of 4.5 percent. As is the case here, these sort of figures given the lie to any claims of councils being profligate. 

One effect of the recent string of natural disasters is the prominence they gave to the state of Queensland's major road freight corridor, the Bruce Highway.  The Cairns Post is reporting this morning that the highway has flooded 400 times in the past two years.  That means massive costs to councils and businesses due to delays, repairs and so on. Main Roads Minister Craig Wallace has called for a generational commitment from all sides of politics to flood proof the road. But the size of that challenge is enormous: according to a study released by Mr Wallace this week, the cost would be around $5.3 billion, $1.3 billion of which would be needed to fix problems between Brisbane and Gympie alone.

For all that, the functionality of the Bruce Highway has become so important to the state's economy that its upgrade is likely to become a hot political issue. Unfortunately for those wanting the Federal Government to start viewing that upgrade as a top priority, Mother Nature's fury has meant a promised $300 million funding boost for the road has had to be diverted to help pay for flood and cyclone reconstruction. And other states are preparing cases for major improvements to their transport corridors.  In NSW, every fatal crash on the notorious Pacific Highway prompts heartfelt pleas for Canberra to get serious about putting money into it.

One topic that continues to dominate public debate is climate change.  Overnight, former prime minister Kevin Rudd made headlines when he declared that his abandonment of an emissions trading scheme last year was a mistake.  His successor, Julia Gillard, is now trying to wrestle her efforts to price carbon through the parliament, and is said by some to be copping a bath in the opinion polls because of it.  Queensland councils have a sizable stake in this debate given the liability and security implications of developments such as sea level rise.  Who is reponsible if development rights have to be curtailed or land resumed to prevent future inundation of property?  The Climate Commission, a body set up by the Australian Governmment to provide scientific advice on climate change and boost support for a carbon price, is travelling the country encouraging discussion about climate science. The Climate Commission is holding a public forum in Ipswich this Thursday, April 7.  Should be a lively discussion. Click here for details.

Two months after the natural disasters that devastated the state, the reconstruction effort is well under way and communities are slowly getting into a position where they can contemplate how resilient they need to be in the event of more flooding and cyclones next summer. Some people, however, will finding it difficult to adjust to these circumstances.  Premier Anna Bligh has warned that Easter will be a testing time for some disaster victims who are finding it difficult to resume balanced lives.  LGAQ has been working with groups like Beyondblue, a group set up more than a decade ago to encourage community leadership to help prevent depression and respond to its social impact.  As part of Youth Week, which starts today, beyondblue has provided $30,000 to various disaster-affected communities to help fund activities and events aimed at engaging young people who might be struggling to get on with their lives.  About 11 councils are involved, including:

• Banana Shire Council
• Barcaldine Regional Council
• Bundaberg Regional Council
• Central Highlands Regional Council
• Lockyer Valley Regional Council
• Maranoa Regional Council
• North Burnett Regional Council
• Rockhampton Regional Council
• Somerset Regional Council
• Southern Downs Regional Council
• Toowoomba Regional Council

While it has been an exciting week in Queensland politics, the grinding work of policy development goes on and _ dare I say it _ is likely to produce more long term benefits for the state than whether we have a Labor or LNP administration in George St.  One of the big policy challenges facing the state is its housing affordability problem, an issue in which state and local government, financial institutions and the development industry all have a role in influencing.  Well, here's a policy breakthrough in this vexed and divisive area.  The Target 5 Days project, driven by the Council of Mayors (SEQ) and partly funded by a grant from the Federal Government's Housing Affordability Fund, aims to turn around low risk housing development applications in double quick time.  A five day turnaround for these types of development applications will help cut average development assessment timeframes by a whopping 75 percent.  There's more detail in this news release but, with this breakthrough now achieved, the housing affordability ball is in the developers' court.