Enduring Financial Sustainability Through "Bottom-Up" Local Authority Ingenuity and Rational "Top-Down" State Regulation: The Case of Lake Macquarie City Council

Title
Enduring Financial Sustainability Through "Bottom-Up" Local Authority Ingenuity and Rational "Top-Down" State Regulation: The Case of Lake Macquarie City Council
Publication Date
2014
Author(s)
Dollery, Brian E
Kortt, Michael A
Valle de Souza, Simone
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Inc
Place of publication
United States of America
DOI
10.1080/01900692.2013.809594
UNE publication id
une:15125
Abstract
For decades Australian policy-makers have relied on the blunt instrument of forced amalgamation to reform local government. However, a host of recent public inquiries has demonstrated that despite compulsory mergers in all states, except WA, financial unsustainability has become more acute. Using the case study of the successful achievement of ongoing financial sustainability by Lake Macquarie City Council in NSW through its resourceful "bottom-up" use of the "top-down" financial parameters set for NSW local government, this paper argues that state governments should concentrate on "process change" by establishing sound "top-down" regulatory frameworks thereby enabling "bottom-up" ingenuity by local authorities rather than "structural change" through compulsory mergers.
Link
Citation
International Journal of Public Administration, 37(4), p. 215-223
ISSN
1532-4265
0190-0692
Start page
215
End page
223

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