Local Government in Australia
Local Government in Australia

Author: Bligh Grant

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-03-06

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 9811038678

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This book offers a general introduction to and analysis of the history, theory and public policy of Australian local government systems. Conceived in an international comparative context and primarily from within the discipline of political studies, it also incorporates elements of economics and public administration. Existing research tends to conceptualise Australian local government as an element of public policy grounded in an 'administrative science' approach. A feature of this approach is that generally normative considerations form only a latent element of the discussions, which is invariably anchored in debates about institutional design rather than the normative defensibility of local government. The book addresses this point by providing an account of the terrain of theoretical debate alongside salient themes in public policy.

Perspectives on Australian Local Government Reform
Perspectives on Australian Local Government Reform

Author: Brian Dollery

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 9781862879850

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Perspectives on Australian Local Government Reform draws upon the insights and expertise of an extraordinary group of contributors, drawn from practitioners with extensive and exceptional hands-on experience in local government, as well as scholars of Australian local government.

Saving Local Government
Saving Local Government

Author: Joseph Drew

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-01-19

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 9811643326

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This book focuses squarely on the problem of saving local government in the context of extraordinary financial challenges being faced across the globe. Saving Local Government is written principally for practitioners and employs a ‘conversational’ tone which makes complex theory both engaging and accessible. It augments world-best scholarship with Professor Joseph Drew’s extensive practical experience in guiding local governments away from the brink of financial insolvency. It is thus a ‘must read’ for local government executives, Mayors, Councillors and the regulators that oversee the sector. In Saving Local Government Professor Drew also makes a number of important contributions to address significant gaps in the scholarly literature. In particular, the book includes extensive treatment of de-amalgamation, applied natural law philosophy, Aristotelian epistemology for evaluating public policy success, as well as alternatives to financial administration. The work is therefore also compelling reading for scholars.

Australian Local Government
Australian Local Government

Author: Brian Dollery

Publisher: Macmillan Education AU

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9780732929046

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The last few years have seen unprecedented change taking place in the Australian local government arena. In all states the functions and responsibilities of local authorities have been subjected to extensive reform. New legislation has redefined the role of councillors. Local governments have been required to introduce more efficient and effective management practices and become more open and responsive to their constituencies. The scope of traditional regulatory practices has been altered and councils forced to develop a competitive environment for the provision of services. The place of local authorities in the intergovernmental landscape has also changed. Different forms of interaction between Commonwealth, state and local government are evolving along with the emergence of new funding strategies to encourage a regional focus. This is the first book to offer a detailed discussion of the reforms that have taken place, and at the same time provide an informative and readable analysis for practitioners and students of government, politics and public sector management.

Local Government in a Global World
Local Government in a Global World

Author: Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0802099637

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Contributors provide insights into key themes impacting local governance in two federations with much in common historically, culturally, and politically: Australia and Canada. These essays examine changes in the Australian and Canadian systems through four thematic lenses: citizen participation in government systems, the restructuring and reform of local governments, the use of performance measures and management systems in the administration of local governments, and the relations of local governments within higher levels of governments.

Local Governments’ Financial Vulnerability
Local Governments’ Financial Vulnerability

Author: Emanuele Padovani

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-02-20

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13: 1000581659

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Local Governments’ Financial Vulnerability presents a conceptual framework developed to examine how vulnerable local finances were before and in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis by mapping and systematising its dimensions and sources. The model is then applied to eight countries with different administrative models and traditions: Australia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the United States. Comparative results reveal not only that COVID-19 impacts and policy tools had a lot of similarities across countries, but also that financial vulnerability has an inherently contingent nature in time and space and can lead to paradoxical outcomes. The book shows that the impact of the crisis on local governments’ finances has been postponed and that financial vulnerability is expected to increase dramatically for a few years following the pandemic, especially in larger and richer municipalities which are traditionally more autonomous and less financially vulnerable. The authors provide timely insights and analytical tools that can be useful for both academic and public policy purposes, to further appreciate local governments’ financial vulnerability, especially during crises. This book is a valuable resource for practitioners and academics, as well as students of public policy, public management, financial management, and public accounting. Local governments can use the framework to better appreciate and manage their financial vulnerability, while oversight authorities can use it to help local governments become less financially vulnerable or, at least, more aware of their financial vulnerability. Financial institutions, advisors, and rating agencies may use this publication to refine or revise their models of credit risk assessment.

Reforming Local Government
Reforming Local Government

Author: Joseph Drew

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-06-23

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9811565031

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This book is a bold prescription for local government reform that moves well beyond the old arguments regarding consolidations (also referred to as amalgamations) and co-operation (sometimes referred to as shared services) to paint a picture of an efficient, effective tier of government that strikes a balance between the right of persons to pursue their existential ends and the need to promote the common good. The book presents a system of local government that balances human dignity with the common good, restrains Leviathan, provides a voice for the disenfranchised (and even the disinterested), and delivers goods and services efficiently and effectively. Ironically, what is often argued to be the weakness of local government in many jurisdictions – the fact that it is merely a creature of statute – is also the best hope we have of making the oft cited rhetoric about how ‘local government is the closest to the people that serves the people best’ become reality.

Councils in Cooperation
Councils in Cooperation

Author: Brian Dollery

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9781862878471

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Australian local government finds itself operating under conditions of acute financial austerity, manifested most plainly in a burgeoning infrastructure backlog. Various policy measures have been adopted to relieve this financial distress, most notably recent structural reform programs centred on forced council amalgamation. However, compulsory consolidation has not only failed to achieve its intended aims, but it has also served to diminish 'local voice' and 'local choice' and left a lasting legacy of bitterness and division.By contrast, as an alternative method of reaping the benefits of scale, scope, specialisation and size in local government service provision, but without all the deleterious effects of forced council mergers, service shared services offer significant promise for local government. Councils in Cooperation is the first attempt to comprehensively explore and assess the potential of resource sharing, shared services and other forms of inter-council cooperation in the Australian local government sector.Drawing on the full weight of international and Australian literature, Councils in Cooperation evaluates the theoretical literature on shared services and advances a new conceptual framework for explaining the comparative performance of shared service programs in practice. The authors consider alternative models of shared service provision and investigate the relative merits of these models. The book then systematically assesses the global empirical evidence on shared services and explores successful - and failed - attempts at shared services in the Australian milieu, providing various case studies of Regional Organisations of Councils, Strategic Alliances as well as vertical and horizontal shared service arrangements in contexts as varied as Greater Western Sydney, the NSW Central Tablelands and Riverina, and Outback Queensland.The policy implications arising from this wealth of material are examined in depth in Councils in Cooperation. The authors present a cogent case for policy makers to encourage local authorities to pursue shared service arrangements in selected areas of policy provision so as to reap the benefits which can flow from larger scale and greater specialisation, rather than rely on the heavy-handed and blunt instrument of forced amalgamation. Moreover, heightened cooperation between councils may well foster a 'bottom-up' revival of regional development with much better prospects for success than the current pattern of 'top-down' regionalism simply imposed on regional communities by national and state governments.Brian Dollery in the News - 30 April 2013, SMH. Read full article...

Australian Local Government Economics
Australian Local Government Economics

Author: Brian Dollery

Publisher: UNSW Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9780868407517

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The increasing complexities of Australian local government place onerous demands on municipal managers and oblige them to continually upgrade their skills. This book examines the economic environment of contemporary local governance.