News
The CLG Working Paper Series continues to be regularly contributed to by members of the Centre and scholars from across the globe. Subjects include:
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Financial sustainability;
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Infrastructure renewal;
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Skills shortages in regional and remote councils;
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Council restructuring, particlarly amalgamation;
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Comparative local government studies;
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Democratic theory;
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Leadership studies.
Papers are available on-line in PDF format.
- Dr Ian Tiley, Chair of the Northern Rivers Regional Development Australia Committee, and inaugural Mayor of the Clarence Regional Council, has been appointed by the NSW Government as a member of the NSW Local Government Acts Taskforce.
The Taskforce has been established by the NSW Government to conduct a review of the Local Government Act 1993 and the City of Sydney Act 1988.
The panel is made up of four persons, including Dr Tiley.
Dr Tiley has a PhD from UNE on NSW local government and has been a leading member of the Centre for Local Government for many years.
- On Tuesday 5 June 2012, Brian Dollery published the opinion piece 'Council Merger Debate Must Stick to the Facts' in The Sydney Morning Herald's Local Government section.
- On Tuesday 24 May 2011, Brian Dollery and Bligh Grant published the opinion piece 'Communities Able to Shape Themselves' in The Sydney Morning Herald's Local Government section. The article is available here.
- On 6 July 2010 Centre Members Brian Dollery, Bligh Grant and Ian Tiley all presented papers on Australian Local Government at the 15th Biennial Conference of the Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand (ACSANZ) at the University of New England.
- In December 2009 the Director of the CLG, Professor Brian Dollery, Deputy Director Bligh Grant and Centre Member Dr Colin Hearfiled presented the paper 'New England Australia: What follows from regional status? A comparative, political economy approach', at the Inaugural Wine Business Symposium held at the University of Newcastle's Centre for Institutional and Organisational Studies. A copy of the paper is available here. The paper was awarded Best of the Symposium.
- In late March/early-April 2009, UNE School of Law lecturer Brian Pape took his case against the funding of the Rudd Government's 'Nation Buliding and Jobs Plan' to the High Court. While ALGA President Geoff Lake expressed relief that the challenge to the funding was overturned, the long term implications could potentially spell far more secure funding arrangements between the federal and local government tiers in Australia's federal system.
For Councillor Lake's reactions to the decision, see the report in Government News;
An interview with Brian Pape in Councillor Magazine on the process and reasoning behind the challenge is also available for your persual here.
For a related argument on the legality of the Howard Government's Roads to Recovery funding, see UNE Centre for Local Government Working Paper 03-2006, 'An Assessment of the Australian Government's Roads to Recovery Program', by Brian Dollery, Bryan Pape and Joel Byrnes;
The full transcript of the High Court case is also available.
The final decision was handed down in June.
For articles written for Councillor Magazine and The Sydney Morning Herald by members of the Centre in 2010, 2009 and 2008, follow the link to News Archives.