LAST week King Island Mayor Marcus Blackie joined hundreds of other mayors, shire presidents and council management in Canberra for the revamped Australian Council of Local Government forum, which the Federal Government has re-established after five years. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, as local government minister in 2008, set up the ACLG and an election promise was to give mayors “a seat at the table.”
Mr
Blackie
writes
….
LAST week in Canberra was huge and it was an honour to represent King Island.
The week consisted of several interwoven conventions, numbering as many as 1100 delegates total, and concurrent with Federal Parliament sitting.
The week started with the Australian Local Government Association national convention (not held for the previous five years) and concluded with the Australian Council of Local Government (not held for the previous 10 years).
Almost all of Australia’s 531 councils were physically represented including 475 mayors, so when you include the Prime Minister and Federal Cabinet into the same room, you’d be very hard-pressed to find a more important group currently hands-on running our country.
Tasmania was represented by 10 mayors, with only King Island, Latrobe and Kentish from our North-West region.
Fortune smiled on us when I was one of the six hand-picked mayors to be at the Prime Minister’s table for the gala dinner in the Great Hall of Parliament House.
We had a pleasant chat and in summary, he said that he and half his cabinet are King Island’s biggest fans, so we have nothing to worry about.
Federal Local Government Minister Kristy McBain and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles were also within talking range.
I was able to forge some new working relationships with other like-minded councils around Australia who are inspired by our story, namely Swan Hill Council (Vic), Sunshine Coast Council (Qld), City of Swan (WA) and a few others.
The main outcome, although yet to be fully ratified, was a tentative pledge by the Federal Government to double the long-running Federal Assistance Grants to all Australian Councils, from $3b to $6b per annum.
If approved this will be a welcome addition to the King Island Council coffers and offset many of our forecast future financial risks.
As Mayor of King Island at such a large convention, I often felt like a bit of a celebrity because everyone was so impressed and inspired by what we represent down here, I attribute that to all of you King Islanders who have literally put us on the map over many decades and make it an easy sell for me and pleasure to represent us.