The Local Capacity, Local Community and Local Governance Dimensions of Sustainability in Australian Local Government

Abstract

The problem of the 'financial sustainability' of individual local councils represents the most significant policy question at issue in contemporary debate on Australian local government. This concern with financial sustainability has not only dominated almost all recent local government conferences across Australia, but it has also formed the capstone of several public inquiries into state local government systems. For instance, at the state level, both the South Australian Financial Sustainability Review Board's (FSRB) (2005) 'Rising to the Challenge' and the Independent Inquiry into the Financial Sustainability of NSW Local Government's (LGI) (2006) 'Are Councils Sustainable' were centrally occupied with determining the meaning of financial sustainability in Australian local government and developing measures of financial sustainability. Moreover, the Queensland Local Government Association (LGAQ) (2006) 'Size, Shape and Sustainability' (SSS) program, the Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) (2006) 'Systemic Sustainability Study' and the Local Government Association of Tasmania (LGAT) (2007) 'Review of the Financial Sustainability of Local Government in Tasmania' had at their core the problem of assessing financial sustainability in their respective local government systems.