Tuesday, 6 February 2024

Local government

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (19:10): (670) My adjournment matter is for the attention of the Minister for Local Government, and the action that I seek is to conduct a broad-ranging review of the Local Government Act 2020, with a view to defining what local government is actually responsible for. You are probably wondering why I would ask that. Well, in the last day or two we have seen the release of the Perceptions of Local Government report, which has been established by Council Watch Victoria, and I want to put it on the record and acknowledge Dean Hurlston, who has done an amazing job going out and surveying a number of people that have been interested in local government and compiling those facts and figures to present in such an easy-to-read report. The report actually garnered a response from 1389 people, which statistically is quite a broad and representative figure. It is interesting to note that one of the questions that was asked in the survey was about what people thought local government should and should not be responsible for – in essence: what are essential services?

Ninety per cent of respondents said roads. Footpaths were 85 per cent; parks and gardens 72 per cent. At the other end of the scale was equality, diversity, LGBTIQA+, 4 per cent. Arts and culture was triple that, on 12 per cent. Environment and climate change was 1 percentage point above, at 13 per cent. In the middle there are other things that are mixed in like planning, family services, local laws – normal sorts of local government matters that come up from time to time – but it is a very clear indication of where people consider their priorities and where they do not consider their priorities. At the moment, the reason why I raise this for the minister is because there are many local governments that are clearly unsure about where their remit rests, and they are neglecting things which people clearly want fixed – roads, footpaths, parks and gardens. We have seen in the past that local governments are very good at talking about Palestine and Israel. They are very good at talking about nuclear treaties. But they are not very good at doing the things that people actually want them to do. The whole purpose of this is to get the minister to actually look at what is going on, conduct a review and ensure that local government focuses on local residents.