News

2009 Graduate Programs and Short Courses

For information please go to the Courses page or view the short course schedule. There is also an FAQ section available for short course enquiries.

 

Certification Short Course

The Centre offers a Certification Short Course for accredited certifiers that is approved by the Building Professionals Board. Places in this course have become available in August, for information please see the short course schedule.

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Current Projects

The Centre undertakes a broad range of research and consultancy projects. Current projects include:

In addition, the Centre has recently completed the following:

For further information on any of these projects, contact Sarah Artist or Graham Sansom.

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Australian Council of Local Government

Centre Director Graham Sansom has been appointed to the Steering Committee of the new Australian Council of Local Government. The Council has been established by the federal government to further cooperation with local government and provide a sounding board on key issues of mutual concern. It advises the federal Minister for Local Government, Hon Anthony Albanese and is chaired by him. Cr Geoff Lake, President of the Australian Local Government Association, is Deputy Chair. The Steering Committee held its first meeting in Canberra on Thursday 5 February 2008.

For full details of the Council's membership and activities, go to www.aclg.gov.au

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New Issue of Commonwealth Journal

The third issue of the Commonwealth e-Journal of Local Governance was released on the 14th of May at the 5th Commonwealth Local Government Conference held in Freeport, Bahamas. The journal is a joint venture of the Centre and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, and is supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Click here for further information and a link to the new issue.

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CLAIR Sydney seminar

The 2009 CLAIR (Japan Centre for Local Government) Sydney Seminar was held on Friday 6 March. The Centre again assisted CLAIR with arrangements. This year's theme was Metropolitan Governance - Ideas from Japan and the guest speaker from Japan was Akira Nakamura, Professor of Political Science at Meiji University in Tokyo.

Discussion focussed on the challenges that modern cities face both in Japan and in Australia, including current issues in metropolitan governance, infrastructure and planning and community engagement.

For further details go to www.jlgc.org.au.

 

L-R: Ross Woodward, A/Director-General, NSW Department of Local Government; Prof. Akira Nakamura; Vanessa Chan, Director of Corporate Services, Ashfield Council; Chris Champion, Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia; Prof. Bill Randolph, UNSW; Robert Mellor, UTS Centre for Local Government (facilitator)

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2009 Local Government Management Challenge

This year the Centre again facilitated the NSW section of the LGMA's Australia-New Zealand Local Government Management Challenge. The event was held over 3 days on 16-18 March, and 27 teams entered from across the State.

The Challenge was won by the Mid-Western Regional Council (based in Mudgee), with Wagga Wagga City second, and a three-way tie for third between Blue Mountains City Council, Leichhardt Council, and Shoalhaven Shire Council. The national final will be held in Melbourne on the 19th of June.

Local Government Teams at the Local Government Management Challenge
Local Government Teams at the Local Government Management Challenge

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Integrated Planning and Reporting Program

The Centre's new program to help council's prepare for the NSW Department of Local Government's integrated planning and reporting framework (or simply upgrade their existing strategic planning and Management Plans framework) is gaining momentum. The Centre is currently working with two councils and has undertaken preliminary work or had discussions with several others.

This Program aims to build in-house capacity for the medium-long term and is NOT a traditional consultancy service for preparing plans. It offers councils appropriate guidance, training, mentoring and support, enabling them to prepare and implement their own new-style community strategic and related corporate plans. The Program brings together a team of highly experienced local government practitioners, consultants and facilitators who can provide the support needed by councils to move ahead with the planning and reporting reforms.

For further details click here

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Director visits Canada and South Africa

Centre Director Graham Sansom has recently visited both Canada and South Africa to take part in various international meetings, conferences and seminars.

In September 2008 he visited Canada for 10 days to attend Board meetings of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, and also to deliver two presentations. The first was to an International Roundtable on Infrastructure Financing and Planning hosted by MetroVancouver and Infrastructure Canada in Vancouver on 3 September. The second was for a seminar at the Forum of Federations in Ottawa on 5 September on the theme Australia's New Cooperative Federalism: believe it or not…?

Graham also had meetings with the BC Department of Communities on their approach to supervising and supporting local government in the province; with the Canadian Government's International Development Research Centre; with the research division of Infrastructure Canada; with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities; and with colleagues at the University of Victoria BC, Carleton University, Ottawa, and the University of Toronto.


Graham Sansom speaking at the Forum of Federations

In January 2009 Graham visited South Africa for a week at the invitation of the Municipal Demarcation Board (a unique independent national body that reviews and sets local government boundaries) and the University of the Western Cape. He spoke at the Board's 10th anniversary conference in Johannesburg, and at a seminar in Cape Town on municipal rating. The South African government has just introduced new legislation to regulate (but not control) the way local governments set rates. At both events delegates were interested to learn about recent Australian experience, including council amalgamations and the consequences of rate-pegging in New South Wales.

The visit also included discussions with the Metro Cities in Johannesburg and Cape Town, particularly around the themes of strategic planning and international relations, as well as with the Community Law Centre at the University of Western Cape, which is one of the leading South African centres for local government research and practice.

Click here for the presentation to the Municipal Demarcation Board conference.

Click here for the presentation on rating.

For further information, contact Graham Sansom.

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Capital Cities in Federal Systems

In 2008 the Centre was commissioned by the Forum of Federations to undertake the Australian component of a global research study into the Finance and Governance of Capital Cities in Federal Systems. The study compared Canberra with other federal capitals in Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States.

A book based on the study is expected to be released during the next few months. Key questions addressed include:

For further information, contact Graham Sansom. Forum of Federations website link

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Pacific Projects

The Centre continues to be closely involved in two major local government capacity building projects in the Pacific, managed by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum through its Suva, Fiji office. These are the regional Pacific Local Government Project covering nine Commonwealth countries from PNG in the west to Samoa in the east, and the Honiara City Council capacity building project in the Solomon Islands. The Centre provides monitoring and evaluation advice, as well as some technical support.

During 2008 Centre Director Graham Sansom undertook mid-term reviews of the two projects. These involved extensive fieldwork: in the case of the regional project visits were made to four of the participating countries - Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu and Kiribati.

The reviews provided a valuable opportunity to meet with a broad range of senior government representatives and regional development agencies to discuss issues surrounding emerging systems of local government, including links to traditional governance. Much of the information obtained will feed into the Centre's research on Pacific local government legislation. A follow-up meeting on the regional project review was held in Nadi, Fiji, in March this year, and further work is planned for June. Also, a second phase of the Honiara project review is scheduled for August-September: this will include design work for continuation of the project during the next 2-5 years.

For further details contact Graham Sansom.

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Conference Presentations

Recent presentations have included:

Local Government under a New Federalism, LGMA National Congress, Gold Coast, May 2008. 

Lessons in Governance: from the local government arena, Chartered Secretaries Australia (NSW) 2008 Public Sector Update, Sydney, October

What's the Point?Australian local government reform in the noughties, International Research Society for Public Management, Brisbane, March 2008

Municipal Demarcation: An Australian Perspective, 10th Anniversary Conference, Municipal Demarcation Board, Johannesburg, South Africa, January 2009.

Property Rating: Recent Developments in Australia, University of Western Cape, South Africa, January 2009.