Address to the 2007 South Australian Local Government Association Conference

11 April 2007

I would like to start by reiterating Labor’s commitment to support the necessary legislation for a referendum to amend the Australian Constitution to recognise the autonomous role of Local Government. 

This longstanding commitment underpins our understanding of, respect for and eagerness to work more closely with local government to achieve our policy goals for Australia.

There are many social and economic challenges facing the varied regions of this country.  I turn first to the issue of climate change.

It is frightening when you hear that the inflows into the Murray have slumped further, falling to just 30 gigalitres in January this year. South Australia is moving into uncharted territory in term of the amount of water available to irrigators and for domestic and industrial use.

Given the gravity of the situation, it is frustrating that the Howard Government has sat back for 10 years and watched while the Murray River has been reduced to a trickle.

Common sense tells us that the Murray River's problem and water supply issues are generally linked to climate change. Of course you can't solve the water crisis without tackling climate change.

The Howard Government has been far too slow to act on climate change and senior Government Members have often dismissed the link between our water crisis and climate change.

We believe practical, immediate action and long term vision on both water security and climate change – that's Labor's agenda.  We strongly support the principles of the National Water Initiative. It emphasises the need for cooperative effort, in the national interest.

Not only must all tiers of government in Australia work together, but Australia needs to work with the rest of the world in a genuinely global effort to bring down the levels of greenhouse gas in our atmosphere. 

Federal Labor has already released 10 practical policies to help Australia reduce our carbon emissions.

Labor has committed to:

But today I would like to focus on another urgent issue that deserves immediate attention.  It is an issue that affects every person as well as the whole population.

The Allen Consulting Groups’ 2004 Report Governments Working Together has estimated the cost of chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other illnesses and injuries account for almost $34 billion and 70% of allocated heath expenditure.

To illustrate the rise in health costs to this nation, the cost of the health budget in NSW alone in 20 years will be the total of the cost of the total budget in NSW today.

These rising costs are unsustainable. Despite this situation the Howard Government does nothing to address the cause: the growing rate of illness in our community: the rising incidence of chronic disease.

This failure to act is reprehensible.  It is not as though there is nothing that could be done, in fact there is a great deal that can be done to try and reduce the incidence of chronic disease, and plenty of research into health promotion and the social determinants of health to guide our efforts.

The philosophy of health promotion: ie. public policy that delivers programs to prevent illness and improve wellbeing, directly informs the challenges facing local government in the 21st century.

When Labor talks about the role of local government we do so with what we want to achieve in mind.  We want to improve the health of Australians.  We want to reduce chronic disease. We want less people to experience depression.  We want to improve equity in the delivery of health services. We want to provide greater opportunity for social cohesion.

Australia is home to world leaders in the field of Health Promotion.  It is an area of public policy that the states and local government leave the federal government miles behind.

For the first time in history, Labor has identified health promotion as a portfolio. This signals a new emphasis on illness prevention for a future Labor Government. 

We are all familiar with the concept of making medical services available to all: this principle has always driven Labor’s commitment to public health.

We are perhaps less familiar with the philosophy of health promotion, which is about making good health attainable to all.

From a public policy perspective, health promotion requires long term investment in people, programs, facilities and urban environment.  It involves challenges like changing attitudes and habits.

The social determinants of health have long been ignored by the current Government at the expense of the indigenous population, and communities of social disadvantage, and many such as some rural and remote communities who don't necessarily consider themselves disadvantaged, but by their postcode miss out on many social and physical infrastructure pre-requisites to better health.

Labor understands it will require a sophisticated degree of co-ordination across portfolios and across the three tiers of Government to make the policy adjustments necessary to change these social determinants of health. We need to rebuild social networks and physical environments so they serve to improve health and healthy lifestyles. 

Labor believes that safe and well-maintained physical facilities and urban environments combined with the social capital generated by volunteer-run community clubs and groups forms the basis of a socially inclusive and physically active community.  In other words: a health-promoting community.

Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard did a clever thing by combining the Local Government portfolio responsibilities with a portfolio such as Sport, Recreation and Health Promotion. 

My role as shadow minister is to develop the policies that will help communities to be health promoting.  That’s why what the local government sector have to say is so important to Kevin Rudd and Federal Labor.

Labor knows that each level of Government has its role to play in health promotion: it’s really only the Commonwealth Government under the neglectful stewardship of John Howard and Tony Abbott in the Health portfolio who have not fulfilled their responsibilities. 

But I know that Local and State Government has had their collective heads across this issue for a long time.  The key is finding the right spot for federal support that complements these existing efforts of state and local government.

Having met already with a number of Mayors, I know that South Australian local councils are clued right into the importance of creating health promoting communities.   They are supported by the Centre for Health Promotion: an inspiring group of health professionals whose work makes a real difference to the lives of mothers and children, and in particular, indigenous people.

Imagine the possibilities if the Federal Government can complement these efforts? We know we will need to work with the States very closely, but that is not enough. Clearly we believe an enhanced role and greater assistance for Local Government is necessary if a future Federal Labor Government, working closely with States and Local Government is to achieve better health promoting outcomes for whole communities. 

Let me turn to a practical example of health promotion.

The health benefits of increasing physical activity provide a good example to illustrate the important role local government has to play in health promotion.

There is a lot of focus on rising obesity in the debate about the health of our population. But remember that obesity is a symptom of lower levels of physical activity and fitness in our communities. A substantial part of the cause is not enough exercise.  We know that a lack of physical activity increases the likelihood of suffering from chronic disease. 

Associate Professor Tim Olds from the School of Health Sciences at the University of South Australia makes the following points which sums ups the situation neatly:

We have collected data on the fitness performance of more than 50 million children from more than 50 countries, reaching back almost 100 years. From at least 1960 until 1070, there was a clear improvement in aerobic performance, at which point it plateaued and started to fall. It is now declining at a rate of about 4%-5% per decade. Your children are likely to be 10% 15% less fit that you were when you were their age.

A key question for Labor is: where is the point of intervention that can make the most difference to halting this trend, and even turn it around? First and foremost what is needed is the infrastructure that facilitates physical activity. 

Well, I note the fact that Local Government spends double on sport and recreation facilities than the Commonwealth and States combined.  And it is local government that builds and manages walkways and cycle ways.  It is usually local government that waters the suburban, town and country ovals. 

Labor knows that if we are serious about improving levels of physical activity in communities, we need to build communities with an urban environment and facilities that can support safe, regular physical activity by as many people in the community as possible: young, old and everyone in between.

Sadly, the financial pressure on local governments has been sucking capital funding out of these community facilities for many years. This is devastating for communities already under pressure and perpetuates existing disadvantage.

The ALGA-commissioned PriceWaterhouse Coopers Report, National Financial Sustainability Study of Local Government, which built on the sustainability studies commissioned by the SA, NSW and WA Local Government Associations, nails this point rigorously.

The report recommended a Local Community Infrastructure Renewal Fund in an effort to offset a deepening crisis in community facilities.

We now know that local councils in rural areas that are not growing are not able to properly maintain their existing facilities and they are run down and/or unsafe.

We know that in the cities the challenge for space is demanding innovation and investment to keep up with the physical activity needs of a diverse community.

We know that local councils in fast growth areas can’t keep up with the capital requirements for new recreational facilities in new areas.

We know that watering our ovals and green spaces is getting harder and harder as the effects of drought and climate change get a grip on Australia. 

It was Hugh Mackay, one of Australia’s best known social commentators that helped me garner an insight into the link between all these disturbing health trends I mentioned earlier, particularly in lower socio-economic communities and the dry practical observations of the PwC Report. 

Mackay observes that with the changes to the family unit and more people living on their own than ever before, human beings, being social creatures, have sought what he calls their “herd”.  By this he means people seeking out others in the community with whom they share a common interest. 

However for many, as the physical and social infrastructure in communities has deteriorated, or never been built in new areas, this search has been in vain.  Without this social contact and associated physical and intellectual activity, a person’s sense of belonging is diminished. 

So it is not surprising that mental and physical health suffers.  This is inevitably worse in areas already suffering disadvantage.

Accompanying this decline in physical and social infrastructure has been a decline in volunteerism. This has lead to an even greater incapacity of communities to sustain the sort of activities that get people together regularly and create social networks.

In fact, I suspect the decline in physical infrastructure has been a factor into the decline in volunteerism. 

As councils have found they just can’t afford the capital costs of maintaining infrastructure, I have no doubt the deliberate or inadvertent shifting of the cost of maintaining facilities onto not-for-profit clubs has made doing that volunteer work just too hard.

Combine this with rises in public liability insurance costs and the introduction in the GST and it is hardly surprising that a once stimulating volunteer role became a source of stress that was debilitating.

We all know it tends to be the same people year in and year out – I am not surprised many are just burnt out.

And so, Labor has observed the unravelling of our social fabric at this very grass roots level and we are committed to helping communities knit it back together.

Labor is informed by the social indicators of health.  We know that to reach into communities that need health promoting services and facilities the most, we need the full cooperation of local government.  Local Government’s know best the needs in their area.

It is only with Federal Labor’s commitment to empowering local Government, as well as Federal Labor’s commitment to ending the blame game and cost shifting across all tiers of Government that meaningful changes can be achieved.

In an address to the Don Dunstan Foundation in July 2005, Labor leader Kevin Rudd made the following assertion in the context of noting that voters are understandably outraged by the “blame game”  

The Howard Government has elevated the “blame game” from an art to a science between the Commonwealth and the states:

 “From a financial perspective, the dysfunctionality of Federation is clearly articulated through cost shifting. It is most apparent in the health, disability, ageing and broader social security systems. “

This understanding of cost shifting in a federal/state situation is also informed by the outcomes of the 2003 House of Representatives Economics Committee Inquiry into Cost Shifting onto Local Government which made the observation:

“Our system of federalism is fracturing under the weight of duplication and coordination costs between three levels of government and it is costing the Australian community around $20 billion a year.”

The PriceWaterhouse Coopers Report into Sustainability of the Local Govt is a seminal document because it exposes the fundamental failings of the Federal Government in relation to the both the building blocks and the mortar of a modern civil society: the truly local physical and social infrastructure.

The national physical infrastructure shortfalls have been well articulated by Labor. Now, with this report commissioned by ALGA, the shortfalls in local physical and social infrastructure have been laid bare.  It’s as though the mortar that holds our civil society together has been eroded.

Whilst it is incorrect to generalise, it is reasonable to say that most councils are struggling to build new, maintain and upgrade existing community infrastructure. 

This is significant and I have no doubt that the result of which is a major contributing factor to the increased feelings of social isolation and disconnection expressed by many of our citizens.

So what to do?  The evidence presented in the PwC report of the magnitude of the deterioration of physical and social infrastructure coupled with the insights provided by Mackay’s social research points to the need for investment in communities to rebuild and update this infrastructure.

Labor is listening carefully to the case being made for a Local Community Infrastructure Renewal Fund.  One observation we can make: the financial shortfall within the local government sector will continue to exist, even if a way was found to fund much needed new facilities, upgrades and desperately needed maintenance in the short to medium term.

At the heart of the problem is the inadequate Financial Assistance Grants methodology and indexation, exacerbated by a freeze, and further pressure from unanticipated social and economic trends for which there is simply no capacity for Local Government to respond - and in some cases no capability.

These chronic shortfalls only became politically visible to the Howard Government when it started to affect votes. Responsible public policy has never been a motivating factor with the current Government.

Roads to Recovery, a desperately needed and now very popular program was the result of the growing carnage on rural and regional roads. 

The bottom line with R2R is that it is still needed as much as it ever was.  The root of the problem, federal funding that fails to keep pace with growth, has never been addressed.

Let me go through our commitments to date, commitments that recognise and seek to address problems local councils continue to face.

The replacement of many deteriorating local roads, reaching the end of their economic life, remains beyond the capacity of many local councils. Labor is committed to continuing Roads to Recovery for this reason.

Labor has campaigned hard to improve the accountability of these grants and looks forward to implementing roads to recovery audit recommendations to improve the transparency of the system.

 Labor is also committed to expanding the eligibility of the roads to recovery grants to encompass public transport-related projects like bus and ferry stations, and airstrips for remote communities.

Federal Labor has also committed to retaining the Auslink program, but Labor will redevelop it to ensure strict criteria focussed on strategic regional economic links – metropolitan, provincial and rural – which are not currently Auslink routes.

Under Labor the program will also do more to encourage regional thinking and the pooling of resources in partnerships between Local governments, State and Territory governments and the private sector to achieve major strategic outcomes.

We were pleased to see the Howard Government extend black spot funding last week following Federal Labor’s call for the extension of the program back in February. 

As our roads spokesman, Martin Ferguson, said then, it is one of the more focussed programs producing real results and saving lives on Australian roads.

Labor recognises that critical economic and social infrastructure goes beyond roads too. Telecommunications networks are as important for towns and cities social cohesion and economic growth.

That’s why Labor has committed to an open fibre to the node network to serve 98% of this country. We, like you, are sick of the games being played with the cost and availability of broadband. 

Networking the nation was another Howard political device to quell the growing anger about the pitiful state of telecommunications in non-metropolitan areas of the country. 

In the shade of Labor’s visionary broadband policy, the Howard Government’s privatisation of Telstra at the expense of competitive services on a quality broadband network is the epitome of economic vandalism.

This is particularly so for students and small businesses in regional and rural areas who arguably have the greatest need for fast communications networks.

Local Governments are right to have identified broadband as a priority and Labor’s policy will deliver competitive services so you can leverage better outcomes.

The State of the Regions report made clear that Australia is facing the most severe problems with housing affordability in living memory.

We know that for local government, escalating house prices do not translate into buckets of money, instead they can often create problems, like the need for new expensive infrastructure in schools and roads, and escalating demand for local services as diverse as children's services and hospitals.

Recently, Kevin Rudd and Tanya Plibersek, the Shadow Minister for Housing announced that a Rudd Labor Government will replace the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement with a new National Affordable Housing Strategy, which will bring Local Government into the Federal/State partnership to work together on affordable housing.

This makes sense given the often overlooked role of Local Government in housing provision.

This is a first step towards greater housing affordability.

All elements of federal housing policy will sit under this Agreement - base grants to the States for public housing, community housing support, the first home owners grant and the Commonwealth Rent Assistance Program.

In this way, our many policy 'levers' can start being used to best advantage, by looking at the incentive aspects of government spending on private investment.

In addition to an affordable housing strategy, Labor is committed to work with local government to enhance its role in service delivery in many areas.

I have already outlined above the collaborative role local/state and federal Government's can play in health and health promotion.

Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services, Jenny Macklin has also spoken publicly and with the Local Government Association about her goal to work with local governments to establish centralised waiting lists for child care centres. 

Several local Governments around Australia already run these popular services, and we want to help fund an expansion of these great services across Australia.

We know that effective partnerships with local government will extend across portfolios as well as through the three tiers of government.

As Commonwealth internet-based services continue to grow, there is an opportunity to explore the potential for local governments to help us deliver the practical side of Commonwealth services.

Once we have the high bandwidth networks to facilitate more sophisticated services, we can pursue the real potential or online service delivery.

All of these commitments demonstrate  that Labor is tuned in to the issues confronting the local government sector. We commend the honest, thorough and pragmatic approach to the systemic fiscal and structural challenges confronting the sector.  

I’d like to conclude by going back to where I started, constitutional recognition.

It is a longstanding commitment in the Labor Party's platform and policy to place local government on the same par as other spheres of government.

Late last year the Federal Parliament debated a motion to recognise some key aspects of the role of local government in Australia, the motion was broadly supported.

The Labor Party moved an amendment to the motion that went to the question of a recognition that would extend constitutional recognition to local government.

The Howard Government refused to support us.

I would argue, as my colleagues have in the past, that the Government's words are empty unless it is prepared to go to the Australian people and recommend that local government be elevated to the same status, in the Constitution as Federal and State and Territory Governments.

And Labor is right to have such a confidence in Local Government. The PWC Report and State LGA reports on sustainability indicate a new era of accepting responsibility of existing weaknesses and working to rectify them within the sector.

The focus on whole of life asset management helps us all approach the challenge of fiscal sustainability with a new realism.

Just like investment in health promotion is needed to stem the rising incidence of chronic disease, we need to invest in local government to give them the tools and capacity to contribute as an equal partner to other tiers of government to improving social cohesion, health, education and skills, community facilities, business and economic growth.

We need to put some substance behind the theory of the Intergovernmental Agreement on cost shifting. We need COAG to be an effective forum for all tiers of government.

Labor recognises that this points to the need for a good hard look at local government funding. The formula for Financial Assistance Grants has not been reformed for over 20 years. 

Federal Labor is listening carefully to the arguments for reform and will continue this conversation with your representatives.

We also recognise that a precursor to any decisions of this nature is to ensure an appropriate level of engagement between local, state and federal governments.  Federal Labor knows we need to do better than the current arrangements. I look forward to having more to say about this as well. 

Thank you for having me here today.  You will be hearing a great deal more from Federal Labor with respect to our relationship with Local Government.

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