LOCAL GOVERNMENT, CONSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITION

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:55): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for State/Local Government Relations a question relating to constitutional recognition of local government.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: In September 2010, the federal government announced that it would pursue recognition of local government in the Australian constitution. I know that that commitment was part of a prenuptial agreement between the Greens and Labor. The government established an independent expert panel in August 2011, which carried out its national consultation process between 22 September and 4 November 2011. The panel's discussion paper highlights two distinct forms of constitutional recognition: I refer to democratic recognition and financial recognition. My question focuses on the latter, on financial recognition.

In 2009, the High Court declared that the constitutional basis on which the commonwealth traditionally had relied to support the legality of direct grants to local government did not do so. Financial recognition of local government involves changing the federal constitution to ensure that the commonwealth government can provide funding directly to local councils without having to pass through the state governments. The expert panel's discussion paper specifically asked:

Should the constitution be changed to explicitly say that the commonwealth government can provide funding directly to local councils?

I ask the minister:

1. When the government says it supports recognition of local government, does that include financial recognition?

2. To the panel's specific question, is it the view of the government of South Australia that the constitution be changed to explicitly say that the commonwealth government can provide funding directly to local councils?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (14:57): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. The formal recognition of local government in the Australian constitution has been a key goal of the ALGA and our South Australian LGA as well. It is strongly supported by our LGA. They are obviously pursuing federal government support of this, although I think they are hoping for a referendum in the forthcoming election.

The South Australian government's view on this has been consistent—that in principle we support constitutional recognition. We recognise local government here in this state in our constitution, so it is recognised constitutionally at a state level. In principle we support that occurring nationally as well. However, we have always said that the devil is in the detail, and it is a specific wording that needs to be addressed.

A great deal of work has been done, and I think an expert panel released a discussion paper which looked at four different options for the recognition of local government: symbolic recognition, financial recognition, democratic recognition and recognition through federal cooperation. I understand that the preferred position they have landed on is for the pursuit of financial recognition, and it is considered the greatest chance to gain support. A joint select committee was convened to look into this. It held a number of hearings, and an interim report was handed down, and that support was directed towards the financial recognition model.

The Hon. Simon Crean has written to this state government asking us for our views and we have said that we will wait until the final report is handed down to see what recommendation is made and then we will respond to the position that is indicated in the final report. In the meantime, we continue to support, in principle, we await the outcome of that final report, and we will respond to the details in that.