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

Brian Dollery; Lin Crase; Bligh James Grant

doi:10.5130/cjlg.v0i8/9.2423

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5130/cjlg.v0i8/9.2423

Brian Dollery

School of Business Economics and Public Policy, University of New England

Lin Crase

Regional School of Business, La Trobe University

Bligh James Grant

School of Business Economics and Public Policy, University of New England

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.

How to Cite

Dollery, B., Crase, L., & Grant, B. J. (2011). The Local Capacity, Local Community and Local Governance Dimensions of Sustainability in Australian Local Government. Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, (8-9). https://doi.org/10.5130/cjlg.v0i8/9.2423

Issue

Issue 8/9 2011

Section

Commentary

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Author Biographies

Brian Dollery, School of Business Economics and Public Policy, University of New England

My academic career began in 1976 as a temporary junior lecturer at the University of South Africa in Pretoria. In 1978 I took up a temporary position at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa and held this job in a tenured capacity until 1987. In 1985 I taught at East Carolina State University, Greenville N.C., U.S.A. and moved to Australia in February 1988 as a lecturer in the (then) Department of Economics at the University of New England. During a 1991 sabbatical I taught at the University of Cape Town for six months and at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska for a further six months. In 2002, I spent nine months on sabbatical leave teaching at Yokohama National University in Yokohama, Japan. I secured a Hobart Houghton Research Fellowship in the Department of Economics at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, and spent a month researching at that institution in early 2003. In 2006/07, I spent six months as a Visiting Foreign Scholar at Yokohama National University in Yokohama and a further month at that institution as a Visiting Foreign Scholar in June 2009. I enjoy drinking, cricket and rugby.

Lin Crase, Regional School of Business, La Trobe University

Lin is Professor of Applied Economics with the Regional School of Business at La Trobe University. He is also the Director of the Albury-Wodonga campus. Lin has a PhD in Economics and his fields of competence are primarily in water policy, institutions for managing water allocations, water property rights and analysis of the trade-offs between sectors that compete for water access. He is currently managing research projects for the Commonwealth government and regularly provides advice to state and regional agencies on water policy. He has published four books and more than 75 refereed journal articles along with numerous book chapters, conference papers and invited contributions. He is regularly sought out by the media and others for his views on the political economy of water policy in Australia.

Bligh James Grant, School of Business Economics and Public Policy, University of New England

Bligh Grant is Research Lecturer in Local Government Studies and Deputy Director of the UNE Centre for Local Government. He is also a PhD candidate in the Centre and School of Business, Economics and Public Policy and is completing his dissertation in journal article format. The title of his thesis is Place-shaping in Local Government: Implications for Australia. It is due to be submitted in December 2011.

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Brian Dollery, School of Business Economics and Public Policy, University of New England

Lin Crase, Regional School of Business, La Trobe University

Bligh James Grant, School of Business Economics and Public Policy, University of New England