September 2022

A Message from the President

On the 24^th August, we were pleased to be able to announce our annual Award winners.  While we did this virtually, we look forward to presenting to the winners in person at our Conference Gala Dinner on the 13^th October.

The Awards are a celebration of the outstanding achievements in our sector and recognise the excellence being demonstrated by Local Government professionals in Tasmania.  Each and every day, officers in councils are ensuring quality services and outcomes are being delivered for communities.  The Awards not only showcase best practice approaches and innovation but allow us to learn from each other.

This year there were three Award Categories supported by our wonderful sponsors.

• Environmental Leadership and Sustainability Award - Sponsored by RDA Tasmania

WINNER: Brighton Council for FOGO Service Rollout and Waste Education Sustainability Program

• Community Services Delivery Award - Sponsored by Spirit Super

WINNER: Waratah-Wynard Council for Social Media Engagement Initiative 

• Partnerships and Collaboration Award – Sponsored by JLT Public Sector

WINNER: 12 Southern Councils/STCA for the Regional Climate Change Initiative

Read more about the Award finalists and winners later in this newsletter.

All our winners have been put forward for the National Awards which are anticipated to be held later this year, dependent on the resolution of financial issues at National and the outcome of a review of the future direction.  (Please read the item on National Office later in this newsletter for more information).

Congratulations to all our finalists, and our winners, for outstanding work.

Huge congratulations also to Devonport City Council’s The paranaple Pioneers, who having won the Tasmanian Management Challenge, went on to win Silver at the National event in Adelaide in August.  They were beaten only by a large Western Australian Council, with over 1000 employees.  This was an outstanding result that showcases the high caliber of professionals working in Local Government in Tasmania.

Paul Jackson

President, LG Professionals Tasmania

2022 Conference

Don’t forget, LG Professionals Tasmania’s premier event, our Annual Conference will be taking place 13-14 October at Grindelwald Tamar Valley Resort.  A fabulous networking opportunity is provided on the night of the 12^th with our pre conference welcome dinner.

An array of inspiring and educational speakers have been lined up for you – the program is available here.

Our conference simply would not be possible without the support of our sponsors and trade and exhibitors.

We are delighted to welcome on board already: Commbank, Datacom, Dobson Mitchell Allport, Edge Legal, Insight GIS, LG Solutions, Magiq Software, MAV Insurance, Page Seager and Simmons Wolfhagen.

A variety of room types are available at Grindelwald and LG Professionals Tas has made a block booking for your convenience, so get in early and let them know you are booking for our conference

News from the National Office

Local Government Professionals Australia generates the majority of its income from the National Management Challenge and the National Congress. Unfortunately, the reality is that both events have been impacted significantly by COVID-19 and as a result this has placed the organisation in an exceedingly difficult financial position. The National Board have made the decision to close the Office and undertake a full review of the future direction of the organisation. This review will involve extensive consultation with State and Territory Associations who make up the eight members of the national organisation.

Upcoming Special Interest Group Event

Date: Thursday 3 November 2022
Time: 9:45 am - 3:45 pm
Venue: UTAS Burnie Campus I Burnie 

Hear from:

• Cynton Jaffray, Director of Productivity Improvers - Topic: Lean Digital - to enhance innovation 

• Vivien Patterson, CIO, Clarence City Council - Topic: Clarence City Council Digital Transformation 

• Gordon Sterling, Product General Manager, TechnolgyOne - Topic: Council successes in using machine learning to capture and manage road and footpath defects

• Jeffrey Griffith, Deputy General Manager, Devonport City Council & Luke Walder, IT Coordinator, Devonport City Council - Topics : 132 & 337 automation & overview to objective Trapeze which provides software purpose built for planning and building teams. 

• Shelley Dover, Customer Service Manager, Datacom & Anthony Sidwell, Senior Product Manager, Datacom - Topic: Datacom & Datascape for Local 

Awards

Environmental Leadership and Sustainability Award – Sponsored by RDA Tasmania

Winner: Brighton Council’s FOGO Service Rollout and Waste Education Sustainability Program.

This program was introduced in 2021. This new kerbside waste recycling service diverts household food and garden organics from landfill. Applying the learnings from other councils, Brighton ensured the project was well coordinated and communicated, using a package of actions to tackle everything from consumer use to waste service system design and finance options. The service implementation was complemented by the introduction of an ongoing sustainability program in schools, raising awareness of waste issues and FOGO. Detailed project planning and risk assessment resulted in a smooth rollout and strong uptake with initial diversion targets already being exceeded. Brighton Council is helping its community win the war on waste.

Community Services Delivery Award - Sponsored by Spirit Super  

Finalists: 

• Reconciliation in the Huon Valley 

• Social Media Engagement Initiative – Waratah-Wynyard 

• Tomorrow Together – City of Launceston 

Winner: Social Media Engagement Initiative – Waratah-Wynyard 

Waratah-Wynyard Council has taken a dynamic approach toward social media engagement. As part of its award-winning Community and Engagement Strategy (2019 – 2021), Council’s Social Media Engagement Initiative reflects tactical content and context management, with the primary objectives of increasing digital engagement, followers, views and shaping positive perceptions of Council across all their digital platforms. Over the last year Council has engineered its social media presence to appeal to the ‘digital native’, creating online content that veers from the stoic digital persona common to Local Government  and developing community connection through encouraging active engagement.Within the first six months of implementing the initiative, there was an increase in Facebook reactions by 149.1% and in an increase in Facebook engagement by 105%.Youtube views also vastly increased, with video views skyrocketing by an impressive 7,252.9%. 

Partnerships and Collaboration Award – Sponsored by JLT  

Finalists:  

• Sports Infrastructure Master Plan–City of Devonport 

• Embedding Shared Resources – Latrobe and Kentish  

• City Deal – City of Launceston 

• Regional Climate Change Initiative – STCA/12 Southern Councils 

Winner: Regional Climate Change Initiative 

The Regional Climate Change Initiative (RCCI) is the primary vehicle for climate change action across all 12 southern Tasmanian councils. The STCA’s RCCI climate program and project partners are collaborating to support councils to integrate climate action across corporate, strategic and operational functions. This Project has provided an overarching mechanism to achieve a standardised and harmonised approach to local government climate action. The Project uses co-production methods and with stakeholders to leverage existing council climate knowledge, resources and expertise. Corporate knowledge and resource has been utilised in developing municipal climate profiles, risk and adaptation planning tools, legal advice, greenhouse and energy profiles and inventory methods. 

Local Government Review

The LG Professionals Tasmania Board met on 24^th August in Longford.  In addition to taking that opportunity to announce the Tasmanian Award winners, the Board also worked through the interim report from the Future of Local Government Review.  Our discussions kept in mind the survey responses from our members and in our feedback we noted the following: 

• While at the broadest level the role statements would appear to work, the LG Professionals Tasmania Board is concerned that the lack of clarity and clear definitions limits their usefulness and makes it difficult to assess what directions and decisions can be drawn from them. 

• The Board also has particular concerns about Role Statement 2 - about how regional delivery of infrastructure is determined and structured. The Board want to be reassured that the models being suggested going forward will really deliver better outcomes for their communities and that there is also consideration of how we can build regions without centralization. 

• The Board notes that community expectations of councils, especially as a provider of last resort, are unlikely to change significantly but if too many functions are regionalized it leaves little local capacity to respond nimbly to emerging issues. Further  opportunity for cross disciplinary collaboration  is drastically reduced. The benefits of local design and community input should not be underestimated. 

• The Board of Local Government Professionals Tasmania does not support the inclusion of a Charter in the Local Government Act as this would move the legislation further away from principles and powers of general competency to prescription. 

• The Local Government Professionals Tasmania Board feels the capability and outcome statements were well written and appropriately balanced - benchmarking and aspiration.  They would benefit from further definition of key terms – for example ‘environmental wellbeing’, ‘infrastructure’, ‘social cost’ etc.  In moving forward, careful consideration is needed of the broad framework of influences on these, many of which fall outside Local Government.   

• The Board supports the role councils can play in community wellbeing but notes that serious structural funding deficits in this space would need to be addressed. Similarly, councils’ roles in supporting the current and emerging statutory requirements of State Government need to be considered within the context of funding and resource constraints. There has been a history of new statutory roles being passed to Local Government without the appropriate consideration of resourcing implications. 

• Finally, the Board noted the interrelationships between theme areas. For example, the activation of places has both wellbeing and economic benefits and is critically supported by infrastructure provision. Appropriate planning is required to support good environmental outcomes and well as community wellbeing outcomes. While breaking thoughts into themes can make conversations and communications easier, it is important not to lose the understanding of how different functions, services and infrastructure support joint outcomes. 

The LG Professionals Tasmania Board was asked to identify representatives for a series of focus groups around the priority reform areas for the Future of Local Government Review.  The first of these discussions commences on 2 September. 

Our representatives are:  

Upcoming Events

November 3rd - Innovation & Digital Transformation SIG to be held at UTAS Burnie

November 9th - Risk, Legal & Property SIG to be held at Campbell Town Recreation Centre

November 17th - Human Resources SIG to be held at Tamer Function Centre, Riverside

Check out all of our upcoming events page and keep up to date for our meetings, SIGs and programs.

All LG Professionals Tas events are delivered in a covid-safe manner under state regulations and as outlined in our 2022 Covid Event Safety Plan.

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