Tasmania is on the cusp of a golden era, and the Hodgman Liberal Government is committed to working with the local government sector to share the benefits right across the State.
At today’s annual LGAT conference, it was my pleasure to highlight the great strides Tasmania has taken in the last few years.
The economy is booming and shows no signs of slowing down, with billions being invested in developments right across the state- developments that can only occur because of state and local Governments working together.
To maintain the momentum, I today announced the Government will review regulatory requirements for developments including the interaction with regulatory and infrastructure bodies such as TasWater and TasNetworks in Tasmania with the aim of making the processes cheaper, more effective and more efficient.
I was also pleased to update LGAT on the proposed review of the Local Government Act, with the draft terms of reference now available for public comment.
The review will be used to develop, in close collaboration with the local government sector, a best practice, 21st century framework that:
As I have said before, the review will not consider council amalgamations.
While we always encourage Councils to investigate resource sharing, it must be driven by local communities and by the councils themselves. Other states have tried to impose council reform and failed because it hasn’t been supported and driven by local communities.