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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-16 Daily Xml
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LOCAL GOVERNMENT, REGIONAL MEETINGS

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (14:55): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for State/Local Government Relations a question regarding state government departmental attendance at regional Local Government Association meetings.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: At recent meetings of regional local government associations, at which I have been in attendance, there has been significant disquiet regarding the continuing lack of attendance of state government departmental officials at meetings of these bodies. I refer to an answer given by the minister to a similar question, in her previous stint as local government minister, on 7 April 2009 when I raised the same issue in this chamber—over four years ago. The minister stated on that occasion:

I am not aware of any dropping off in commitment or support and assistance by my office to regional local government associations. I am not aware of and quite surprised by the information the honourable member has provided to the chamber. I am not sure at all that it is, in fact, correct.

Also, another former local government minister, the Hon. Bernard Finnigan, stated in response to another question I asked on 10 February 2011 during his short stint as the leader of the government in this place that:

I would have thought it would not necessarily be essential for the good functioning of local government that there be a representative from the state government there on every occasion.

The Hon. Mr Finnigan then went on to say:

What is important is the overall relationship between state and local governments.

More than four years have passed since I first raised this issue and several state/local government relations ministers have come and gone and come again, but the problem of poor attendance or lack of any attendance of departmental representatives at regional Local Government Association meetings remains. My questions to the minister are:

1. Will the minister commit to ensuring departmental representatives are sent to regional Local Government Association meetings as often as is possibly practical?

2. Will the minister confirm which agency is responsible and will actually represent the government at regional Local Government Association meetings, given the recent transfer of responsibilities of the Office for State/Local Government Relations to other portfolios?

3. Will the minister commit to communicate any new arrangements for departmental representatives to attend regional LGA meetings to the respective bodies as soon as possible?

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) (14:58): I thank the honourable member for his most important questions. I, too, believe it is completely unnecessary to be having government officers sitting around for meetings that often go for many hours if it is not relevant and not needed and does not produce any positive outcomes. The Hon. John Dawkins knows that there have been well publicly reported machinery of government changes to local government arrangements and it would depend—

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! I'm trying to hear the leader.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Well, if you would stop interjecting and actually listen to my answer you might learn something. It would depend on what is on the agenda. It would depend on what issue that regional group wanted to particularly discuss or have the agency involved in. If it was a planning issue that that particular meeting wanted to deal with, obviously they would be inviting someone from planning. If it was to do with transport, then you would be inviting someone from transport, so it would depend and that is the thing with local government.

It is a very broad organisation and is required to address a wide range of different policy areas and those policy areas cut across different government agencies. Different meetings usually want to highlight different issues. There are usually hot issues for that meeting, so it would be up to that particular region, with the chair and the chief executive from that region determining what is a priority for that meeting. Where they felt they needed to have a government official present, then they would need to invite the appropriate agency along. That is the current arrangement under the new machinery of government.

In terms of the overall local government forum—and, of course, regional issues are also discussed there—the forum now comes under the responsibility of the Premier and coordinated through Premier and Cabinet and the same thing applies there: the agendas are drawn up and where the relevant minister or agency officers need to attend and report, they do, but it is in relation to particular and appropriate agenda items. We don't just have, as I said, government officials sitting around hour after hour listening to meetings that are of no relevance to their particular agency or their activities.

The forum is another mechanism that allows for regional issues to be discussed and for appropriate ministers and agency officials to address and specifically identify issues. The South Australian Regional Organisation of Councils meets regularly, and if they want to identify particular issues and invite people along, I would encourage them to do that. There are regional meetings and there is also the central meeting that is conducted through the LGA. I have attended those meetings and I have attended other regional forums that the LGA has put on as well. Where there are issues around regional development and relating to my regional development portfolio, I obviously attend; where they are other portfolio matters, those relevant ministers and/or agency officials should be in attendance.

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