Category Archives: Local Government

Recent Presentation: Options for Regional Collaboration

Posted on 24 August, 2013 by Alex

Recently I presented on this topic to a joint SGS and University of Technology Centre for Local Government Roundtable on “service delivery in a changing context”. My presentation was based on research I have prepared over the past two years analysing ROCs in NSW … Continue reading →

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Report on Australian and New Zealand Local Government reforms released

Posted on 13 June, 2013 by Alex

The Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG) has published a snapshot of current local government review and reform processes in Australia and in New Zealand that were active in late February and early March 2013. The research report, … Continue reading →

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The second Sydney airport – dead, or just resting? (part 2)

Posted on 27 December, 2012 by Alex

First, a disclaimer – I was the CEO of WSROC, the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, from 1996 to 2008 and therefore was involved in many of the debates about the proposed second Sydney airport. In my previous article … Continue reading →

Posted in Airport, Infrastructure, Local Government | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The second Sydney airport – dead, or just resting? (part 1)

Posted on 27 December, 2012 by Alex

Recent media reports point to a revival of plans to build a second Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek, almost a decade since the proposal was (supposedly) killed off by both sides of politics. The current state of play and how … Continue reading →

Posted in Airport, Infrastructure, Local Government, Transport | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Gooding Davies regional organisation study released

Posted on 20 January, 2012 by Alex

A major audit of regional organisation of councils (ROCs) in NSW and Western Australia prepared by Gooding Davies Consultancy has just been released. The study was prepared for the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG) and the Northern … Continue reading →

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Update: Seven things O’Farrell should do in the first 100 days

Posted on 31 March, 2011 by Alex

A couple of updates on my last post: First, a letter from Sandy Thomas (another member of the Sydney Morning Herald Public Transport Inquiry that reported last year) published in today’s Herald offers another and probably more achievable scenario on how … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Development, Governance, Infrastructure, Local Government, Public Transport, Transport, Western Sydney | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Seven things O’Farrell should do in the first 100 days

Posted on 29 March, 2011 by Alex

There is no doubt that Mr O’Farrell and his party scored an emphatic victory in the NSW election, rewriting the record books in the process. While the main factor in the result was the electorate’s obvious dissatisfaction with the performance of … Continue reading →

Posted in Governance, Growth, Infrastructure, Local Government, Public Transport, Sydney metro area, Transport, Western Sydney | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

You call that an amalgamation? THIS is an amalgamation!

Posted on 27 January, 2011 by Alex

Recently I was involved in a project undertaken by the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government, studying examples of amalgamations and other forms of council consolidation across Australia and New Zealand. The largest amalgamation we looked had around 320,000 … Continue reading →

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Sydney, population growth – and the rise of “mega-councils” (part 5 – conclusions)

Posted on 14 September, 2010 by Alex

In the first four posts in this series I looked at the distribution of Sydney’s forecast population growth across local government areas and in particular the projected increase in the number of councils with populations over 200,000, from two in … Continue reading →

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Sydney, population growth – and the rise of “mega-councils” (part 4)

Posted on 13 September, 2010 by Alex

In this post I’ll try to put the “mega-councils” story in the broader context of Sydney’s forecast population growth by looking at population increases growth rates rather than the resulting  size of the councils themselves, though obviously there is a … Continue reading →

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