Local government activities

Message from the President of the Local Government Association of Queensland

There is an old saying that the numbers don’t lie, so it’s always good to have a look at the numbers in local government:

• $155 billion worth of infrastructure
• 40,000 employees
• 245 occupations
• 53,000 hectares of parks and playgrounds
• 153,000 kilometres of road

That’s just a part of what local government is responsible for.

We look after everything from billion dollar road tunnels to barramundi and crocodile farms.

In fact, if you look at the national picture, councils manage 30 per cent of Australia’s public infrastructure yet collect just three per cent of the nation’s total taxation revenue.

That’s our daily challenge. But it’s a challenge that also produces opportunities.

The State Government’s partnering with local councils to produce great outcomes is the essence of The Queensland Plan. In fact, the State Government could not achieve many of its objectives for Queensland without the work, commitment and resources of local government.

Partnering with local government ensures the regional networks, local intelligence and sheer geographical reach when it comes to service delivery are used to further the objectives of The Queensland Plan.

Mayor Mark Jamieson
President
Local Government Association of Queensland

Local Government case studies

Wujal Wujal Emergency Management Network and Community Forum project

The small, far north Queensland Aboriginal shire of Wujal Wujal has shown excellence in developing telecommunications infrastructure for use in weather-related emergencies.

Wujal Wujal was awarded the 2018 National Local Government Award for Excellence for its work on improving its emergency telecommunications network. The award was announced at the Australian Local Government Association’s annual National General Assembly dinner in June 2018.

The Ngana Muruku Jundjurrjiku Janay Wujal Wujal Emergency Management Network and Community Forum project has allowed the community to access a weather-resistant, independently solar-powered telecommunications backup ‘hot-spot’ system to use during emergencies such as cyclonic weather.

The council also won the Achieving Big Things in Small Communities category of the awards, for a project which provides backup telecommunications in an area notoriously vulnerable to weather-related disasters such as cyclones and floods.

These projects are both examples of a small council with limited resources using technology to address a local problem.

Aurukun library a place of learning

Through a partnership between Aurukun Shire Council and Education Queensland, Aurukun’s library has become a place of learning for young and old community members.
The partnership funded a coordinator for the Indigenous Knowledge Centre (IKC) who also ran a flexi school in the library for disengaged youth.

An average of seven flexi students attended the flexi school in June 2018, where they focused on literacy and numeracy skills and undertook cultural and community projects.

These projects included collecting seeds for the Rio Tinto’s seed collection program, working with successful artists at the Wik and Kugu Arts Centre to collect timber and shape it into clan poles decorated by the artists. The students will also make a dugout canoe with elders and artists.

The clan poles created by the students were funded by a grant from the GC2018 Reconciliation in Queensland Schools program and represent each of Aurukun’s five clans.

Each pole displays the traditional body art which adorns Wik dancers when they perform Maalp, a Wik corroboree, to tell the stories of their country and people. The poles were unveiled at an Aurukun State School assembly where elders encouraged the students to join them in a traditional Maalp.

These partnerships are bringing young and old members of the community together to learn from each other and value their culture.

Councils collaborate to keep water and sewage costs low

Queensland councils are joining forces to streamline the design and construction of vital community water and sewage assets across the state.

The development of water and sewerage assets in 30 councils will soon be guided by regional design and construction codes which aim to minimise the time and cost involved in processing development applications for developers and councils.

In the Wide Bay Burnett region, the regional approach to developing the code is estimated to have saved participating councils, and their communities, $300,000. This project was funded by both the State and local governments.

Bundaberg, Cherbourg, Fraser Coast, Gympie and North and South Burnett councils will share the code across planning departments, which includes minimum standard assurance for asset life and service standards.

Developers and councils in Queensland’s south east, north, and far north also have a regional code to reduce the differences between asset requirements between councils.

The benefits of the new code include savings and improved water and sewerage services to all residents and businesses.

Bundaberg Regional Council leads residents in best practice recycling trial

Bundaberg Regional Council has launched a 12-month recycling trial calling on residents to no longer place flexible plastics in their yellow-lidded bin.

Queensland is experiencing a recycling crisis following a decline in the global market for bundled waste products including soft plastics from Australia and worldwide. There is currently no alternative to adequately dispose of or reuse the previously exported waste products.

The trial is designed to reinforce the importance of recycling, and stresses there has been no change to the paper and cardboard, steel and aluminium and glass jars and bottles recycling categories. Plastic bottles and jars such as milk bottles, peanut butter jars, water bottles or even cleaning product bottles are also still recycled.

The trial also acknowledges soft plastics are an environmental concern and currently have limited commercial value or markets.

The need for the trial was identified at the Waste Recycling Industry of Queensland Association’s Queensland Secondary Resources Forum held in Bundaberg in early 2018.

Bundaberg Regional Council is one of two councils selected to participate in a recycling trial, leading by example in defining a best practice kerbside recycling process.

Hollow homes for natives a council success

Australia’s largest tree-hollow program run by Gold Coast City Council has found that 90 per cent of their man-made hollows are being used by native inhabitants.

The council began its program three years ago and it has produced more than 400 hollows for animals like rainbow lorikeets, sugar gliders and micro bats which make use of drying eucalypts which would otherwise be removed.

Tree hollows in urban areas are becoming increasingly rare, according to experts.

The program is just one example of the $260 million per year Queensland councils invest into natural resource management initiatives dedicated to protecting and preserving our environment.

Councils employ over 600 staff—from environmental education officers, turtle rangers to pest and weed managers—across the state to support natural resources management.

This investment is critical to preserving and protecting natural environments in Queensland.

RAPAD: unlocking renewable energy in Central Western Queensland

The seven councils that form the Central Western Queensland Remote Area Planning and Development Board (RAPAD) have a bold plan—to become an energy superpower of the low carbon world.

The goal is twofold—contribute to the state’s renewable energy target of 50% and channel the transformative economic and social benefits back into the region.

Renewable energy is by no means a new endeavour for the region, with a slew of projects completed, underway or in the planning stage.

This year, Canadian Solar completed construction a 15 megawatt solar farm in Longreach—this project will shortly be switched on and begin supplying to the grid.

The Elecnor Barcaldine 25 megawatt photovoltaic solar project, located approximately five kilometres east of the central western Queensland township of Barcaldine, is currently in the commissioning phase. The project is expected to generate approximately 53,500 megawatt hours of clean, renewable power each year, reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 50,000 tonnes per annum (CO2 equivalent).

Also in Barcaldine, an 11 megawatt yellow dot facility brings the total to 36 megawatt in Barcaldine.

Winton is currently constructing a geothermal power station with the aim of supplying 310 kilowatt to assist in keeping power costs down and produce more reliable and efficient baseload power.

Birdsville Planning is advanced on a project to replace the existing 85 kilowatt system with a new plant expected to increase net output to between 150–200 kilowatt.

This April, Professor Ross Garnaut travelled to Western Queensland to talk about renewable energy with councils and the potential capacity for large scale solar projects in the area.

The visit followed Professor Garnaut’s participation in a RAPAD renewable energy forum which saw its vision to generate Queensland’s electricity needs, and bring transformative benefit to the region, endorsed by all in attendance.