Melissa Gibbs's blog

Town Crier High-Flier: Laurie Mundt

Melissa Gibbs — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 20:59:01 +0000

At a recent local government exchange and co-operation seminar in Japan, Melissa Gibbs, Deputy Director of ACELG, had a chance to talk with Laurie Mundt, Economic Developer Manager at Ipswich City Council, about his role and some of the economic issues facing the sector, including debt, financing infrastructure, and regional development.

Melissa Gibbs: I'm with Laurie Mundt, economic developer manager at Ipswich City Council in Queensland. Laurie, can you tell me a little bit about what you do in your role.

Laurie Mundt: Over the years our initial focus was on attracting people to come and live in our city and we've now been able to achieve that and we're getting the population growth that we wanted.

So the challenge for us now is to create jobs for those people that are coming so that they don't have to travel for work. It's all about lifestyle as far as we're concerned. So we've got the people coming; now we're trying to create some jobs for those people that are coming.

MG: What's your role in facilitating that?

LM: My role in that is basically to attract businesses and industries. So we have a promotional role where we actively promote Ipswich as a great place to do business, and we do that through a number of mediums. We have a number of expos that we attend, and a number of seminars and workshops that we hold around the country.

We're very lucky; we've got a mayor who's a very effective promoter and he's put us on the map nationally. So the job has changed a bit over the years to one now where we're reacting to opportunities. We have a mayor who's let everyone know where Ipswich is and it's our role to facilitate those inquiries.

MG: So what are some of the challenges you face in your role?

LM: Our primary challenge is that we're just outside a capital city, so for a lot of the businesses that come to the region their first instinct is to have a look at the capital city, and we have to get them to also consider Ipswich. We are well position though; we've got a product that they can use. We've got plenty of cheap land that's fully serviced.

MG: So what are the top challenges facing your council more generally?

LM: When you have such massive growth as we have had over the last couple of years, the main challenge for council is financing the infrastructure required to service that growth. In other words, there's a big gap between council financing the delivery of the infrastructure to when the land is finally subdivided and we can start collecting rates. So the challenge for us is to find the finances to fill that gap.

MG: How do you typically do that, through borrowings?

LM: Through borrowings, yes.

MG: Do you think you're making the most effective use of borrowings?

LM: I think we are. We have to make it work. I mean we make the most effective use of the borrowings and we also try to minimise the time between actually paying for the infrastructure and it being subdivided and receiving rates.

We're also very fortunate that we've got a lot of partnership deals with developers who will fund infrastructure agreements thereby helping us finance some of the infrastructure in exchange for development credits.

MG: Where do you go to get information to help you in your role?

LM: That's been a challenge over the years. There is no truly effective source – there are no university courses or lectures or seminars that deal directly with economic development issues. There are a couple of people that write books, but they tend to be at a very high level.

The most effective source for me over the 20 years that I've been in local government has been my network of colleagues around the country. I've met them at various functions or I just phone them up out of the blue; I find they're a very valuable source. By talking to other people about issues they're facing and how they've addressed them it stops me having to re-invent the wheel with every new challenge.

And it works both ways. I have those people phoning me too to find out what does and doesn’t work for us, and I find that a very valuable network.

MG: I think local governments are very good at learning from each other. They're usually not afraid to ask for help or to ask someone how they dealt with a particular challenge, and are also willing to offer help in return.

LM: Yeah, that's right – we’re very fortunate. People are always willing to share and discuss ideas, and these days it's easy to pick up the phone or send someone an email if you've got a particular inquiry.

I'm also a member of the Economic Development Association and they have a blog on their website where you are able to register an issue that you are facing and you'll often get colleagues come back with responses.

MG: That's very helpful.

LM: Yes.

MG: During this study visit to Sakaide and Japan, what do you think was the most memorable thing that you'll take away from the experience?

LM: I'm going to go back with a lot of different experiences, some of them professional, some of them social. Professionally what I'll take back from this is how organised and how welcoming the city is. I think that's very important; I think that's something we can all learn from.

We've got a mandate to develop tourism in our city and we do focus on customer service, but this country takes that to a whole new level and I think that we can learn from that.

MG: What about the local government sector generally? Obviously your role is focussed on your activities at Ipswich, but you're connected to the sector through your personal networks and professional associations. What do you think the sector needs to make it more sustainable?

LM: I think the challenge we face, and it's often quoted, is that local government receives four per cent of the taxes in this country, and by comparison the state governments collect 16% and the Federal Government collects 80%. The percentages to me are way out of proportion when you look at the services we're required to deliver. We're very close to the people who use those services. There's often a lot expected of local government, but we're given a very small amount to deliver on these expectations.

We are fortunate to receive Federal and state government assistance for a number of programs, but I think it'd be far better if we had more direct input into how that money is directed and how it's spent .

MG: Thanks Laurie.

Laurie Mundt is the economic developer manager at Ipswich City Council, Queensland.

Melissa Gibbs is the Deputy Director of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government.

Local government's role in fostering social cohesion

Melissa Gibbs — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 01:49:13 +0000

Last week I had the privilege of representing ACELG at a forum convened by the Australian Multicultural Council (AMC) to canvass opportunities to strengthen and support local government's social cohesion initiatives at the local level. Also in attendance at the forum were representatives from the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA), the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV), the Federation of Ethnic Communities in Australia, and the Australian Human Rights Commission.

The AMC highlighted in a recent report that Australian government and non-government stakeholders have undertaken much activity in the area of social cohesion. There are many effective place-based programs advancing a broad social cohesion strategy at a grassroots level. At the forum, local government representatives spoke about local government's role in supporting social cohesion, and a number of similar themes emerged.

Notwithstanding the many similarities in role and function, local government representatives highlighted the stark differences in size and capacity of local governments across the country. Rural-remote and Indigenous local governments face particular challenges as most are dependent on grants to provide core services, yet they play a key role in remote Australia as the public face of government in many communities.

We also noted that local governments have many different roles to play in social cohesion. Local government can be a direct provider of programs, an enabler of others, a collaborator, an advocate and an educator, so we should be acknowledging the full range of contributions made by local government across a wide spectrum of activity.

Perhaps an area of potential development is local government's role in building the capacity of local multicultural communities to become engaged in civic life, encouraging participation in our democracy and system of government, while at the same time retaining culture and values. The remote Indigenous regional councils of the Northern Territory and the Aboriginal Shire Councils of Queensland have a track record of working with local Indigenous communities to transition into a system of local government. This has involved encouraging local communities to become engaged in local government, engaging in discussions about governance, voting systems and the like, and there could be opportunities to examine what has worked in those locations.

Local government's role as an employer should also not be forgotten. Local government is a significant employer, employing over 192,000 people – many more than the Australian Public Service, which employs 160,000 staff. Data analysis undertaken by ACELG suggests there are opportunities for local government to increase the participation of culturally and linguistically diverse people in its workforce. Soon to be released research by ACELG into the recruitment of CEOs in Western Australia shows that those involved in the recruitment process tend to recruit from a pool of currently serving CEOs or senior managers because the essential criteria generally focuses on the importance of knowing the Local Government Act, financial accounting and compliance. Leadership capability can be way down the list, yet the increasing complexity of local government requires strong and inspirational leadership. We know from our profile of the local government workforce that 75% of local government CEOs and directors are male and over the age of 55, so continuing to recruit from this pool will not see us make advances in gender and cultural diversity.

As the Australian Multicultural Council has observed, many local governments have in place effective place-based programs advancing a broad social cohesion strategy at the local level. Any broader national strategy would need to take account of the good work currently being undertaken by local government. It would also need to be based on detailed consultation with the sector to determine what sort of strategy is needed and would be of value to the sector. Local governments love to steal from learn from each other – and they often resent top-down approaches to policy development – so a sector-led approach would work best.

The role of the states and the territories should not be forgotten, and any discussion about national frameworks or strengthening local government's role would necessarily need to include the states and the Northern Territory, as they are constitutionally responsible for local government.

At the forum, the ALGA and MAV specifically reinforced the critical need for policy leadership from the Commonwealth when it comes to settlement services and meeting the needs of minority groups – a sentiment echoed by ACELG – and a collaborative approach between the three spheres of government that would help to ensure all the government stakeholders play their part.

Melissa Gibbs is the Deputy Director of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government.

Back to the Town Crier

Town Crier High-Flier: Edwina Marks

Melissa Gibbs — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 02:10:40 +0000

Melissa Gibbs: I’m with Edwina Marks from Barkly Shire Council in the Northern Territory. Edwina, can you just tell me in just a couple of sentences, a bit about your role?

Edwina Marks: Hi Melissa. I’m the Executive Director of Communities and my role is to oversee the municipal and essential service delivery in six of our remote communities, so it’s a very broad role. It is very much about roads, rates and rubbish, but it’s also about community service delivery as well. So it’s aged care, childcare, and in those remote settings they can be very challenging.

MG: I can imagine. Can you nominate the major challenges facing the Barkly Shire?

EM: The Barkly Shire is about one and a half times the size of Victoria and we have 8,000 residents. So logistics and geography are our daily challenges, including everything from getting people to work or getting contractors to a job. It’s also about keeping essential services such as water, power and a whole range of other essential things continuing to be supplied to communities.

MG: And what are some of the personal challenges in your role?

EM: The most significant challenge that we look at on a daily basis is just guaranteeing the delivery of services. The communities are remote, but there are also a lot of cultural reasons as to why workers might not be at work. So you work through a whole process of legitimising those services to the community, but also respecting that each community has its own way of doing things. Also, it’s a cultural identity which needs to be respected.

The Barkly Shire is also only five years old, so as a new council it is important to take that step back and look at things strategically so that you’re actually maximising best effort. Day-to-day life can easily consume all of your time so it’s really important that we look at some of that longer term planning.

MG: I know you’ve only been at Barkly Shire for a relatively short period of time, but what are some of the achievements that you’re most proud of?

EM: I’ve only been at Barkly for six months but I think in that six months what we’ve done is really connect with the Shire’s employees and start to make our employees feel valued. We have a much larger executive team now than we did before and we’re able to do more. So we’re able to engage where we have a lot more connection points across council, both formal and informal, so that people know what’s going on as a local government provider. But also that we’re getting to know each other as people and have a bit of fun.

We have a wonderful animal management program, which is one of the best in the Territory and we’re taking that to another level. We’re getting recognition both at the Territory and the national level for that program. But a program like that doesn’t just worry about animal health; it actually makes a big difference to population health. It actually keeps people healthy by reducing dog numbers and looking at things as a whole. When you see a vet in the bush operating on a table on a porch to spay a dog, that’s just something to be seen.

MG: So where do you most commonly go to get information and support?

EM: I think in local government, anyone with experience realises that it’s not important to be original, but it’s really important to network within you own and with other councils. I’m really proud of the fact that since I’ve been on board at Barkly I have developed a really strong relationship with the neighbouring councils; Central Desert and MacDonnell Shire. They’ve been invaluable support to me. Both CEOs opened up their executive to me to ask for any support that I might need. As a result, we’re working right across a range of strategic issues but now we can do it from a Central Australian perspective, not just a council perspective.

MG: This is most certainly a reflection of the evolution of the shires over five years, where they are now at a mature enough stage to being looking at addressing issues on a regional basis – and it’s a very large region.

EM: Absolutely. I come from local government in another jurisdiction and I think you forget that, despite all the challenges that local governments face in other states, they are generally more highly evolved. When you bring that experience back into the Territory it gives you the ability to be a time traveller, to know what the future looks like. To bring that back and to look at where things are at a grass roots level, you can see what kind of steps you need to get there - to actually get you into a legitimate space for service delivery.

MG: What’s been the biggest lesson you’ve learnt in your current role?

EM: I think the importance of people power. We’re an Aboriginal organisation. Sixty per cent of our employees are Aboriginal. Our President, or mayor as you’d call them in other jurisdictions and councils, the majority of councillors are Aboriginal. So we’re the guests in country and that’s the most important lesson to learn, and it influences everything that we do.

MG: Everybody I speak with in local government proudly tells me that their council is unique. What is it that sets your council part from others?

EM: I think that we are truly smack bang in the middle of Central Australia, so it takes a long time to get there. You can’t fly in to Tennant Creek other than by charter and I think that does make us special. However, Tennant Creek is an urban area that’s been a land mass for a long period of time and we’ve got these small remote communities we also look after. We feel like cowboys or frontiers people. I think in some ways we are a little bit more raw than other councils, but at the same time we’re certainly striving to modernise and contemporise ourselves.

MG: Thanks for speaking with me Edwina. I wish you and your colleagues at Barkly Shire well.

At the time of this interview Edwina was Executive Director of Communities at Barkly Shire, but has since been promoted to CEO. Congratulations Edwina!

Edwina Marks is the CEO of Barkly Shire Council in the Northern Territory.

Melissa Gibbs is the Deputy Director of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government.

Back to the Town Crier

Town Crier High-Flier: Rosanna De Santis

Melissa Gibbs — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 00:32:37 +0000

Melissa Gibbs: I'm with Rosanna De Santis, Director of Corporate and Community Services with the Tiwi Islands Shire Council in the Northern Territory. Rosanna, in just a couple of sentences can you please describe your role?

Rosanna Di Santis: My role is basically working as part of the executive team for the Tiwi Islands Shire Council, so effectively I'm working very closely with the CEO and councillors to make decisions on delivery of services and also manage a significant number of staff beneath me. I now have three departments; I have community services, corporate and community development as well.

MG: Tell us about your transition from the NT police into local government, how did that come about?

RDS: That came about from me identifying an opportunity of having a change, because I'd been policing for 23 years straight and straight from school too. So I was looking for something different. One of the significant reasons for me taking up the challenge, or applying, was the fact that it took me back to remote communities. In my years of policing I went to a lot of remote communities and served away from Darwin which was by choice, so this being the Tiwi Islands, the fact that it was going to take me out remote again was one of the two reasons.

The second reason being that that's where my mother originates from, Tiwi Islands, so effectively I'd be doing or providing services for my own mob and I don't think I've been quite as satisfied in a job elsewhere.

MG: Tell us about the top three challenges for you in your current role.

RDS: The first – and it still is a challenge – is the fact that I've been policing for so long and in a relatively strict and regimented environment. You know, you've got chain of command and so one of the challenges for myself as a director is trying to be a little bit more flexible. Because I'm conscious of what we have to do as an organisation and our corporate image as well, and when I see that potentially being brought into disrepute or not being adhered to I know I take a strict line.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but what I'm trying to work my way around is to try and be a little bit less the hard task-master, and appreciating more the difficulties facing the community or the more traditional Tiwi people being employed. So that's one of them. Another challenge is the fact that whilst at our level at executive we certainly have that chain of command where we get stuff from our managers and then it's fed upward to the CEO, but it often doesn't happen - for me I feel like it doesn't happen at all levels where it should.

I know that a lot of our employees - and I'm talking about our Tiwi employees - they actually feel disrespected when someone from a different business unit tells them that they need them to do something.

MG: So I suppose an opportunity might be to take the best elements out of the policing chain of command model and applying it to local government in the Tiwis?

RDS: Yeah, that's right. I know you asked for three but they're the two main ones. I think everything else works pretty well. I guess communication would be another one. This happened particularly when we had vacancies in some of our executive structure so a lot of people were busy and doing extra work so we fell down in our communication. Instead of everyone being aware of what was going on, sometimes information didn't get to certain people.

I can remember one example where a decision was made with one of my employees and it was just to fill a gap, but I wasn't consulted about that so I was really quite angry. I then turned around and looked at it in the view of ‘oh well, we have some room for improvement in our communication’, rather than getting all argumentative and negative about it.

But I certainly feel as though there's been an improvement in communication, and it's because we've got those key positions filled as well.

MG: It makes a big difference doesn't it?

RDS: Yeah.

MG: So reflecting on your time at Tiwi, what are some of the achievements that you're most proud of?

RDS: That has to be this one young Tiwi woman who was working with us in Milikapiti. She was one of the CDP [Community Development Program] participants. You know I'd see her float around, come in the office here and there, and I said to her one day ‘do you want to sit down with me and give some thought to what sort of work you want to do so you're not just on CDP all the time?’ True. It was like no-one had asked her that question before and she said I'd like to work with the children at the crèche. 'Alright, well if I said that I could maybe help you do that; would you be prepared to undertake training so that you get qualified?' 'Yeah of course.'

I just saw this woman that was always coming to work and thought 'I wouldn't mind giving her an opportunity'. She was 19 - in little under two years we transitioned her into the crèche, started her off in a children services qualification at certificate II level. She's just got two more units of competency to go and she'll be the first Aboriginal woman in the Northern Territory to actually enter the diploma level.

I love bragging about those good news stories. They always form a part of my report to the Council each month, that and some photos capturing some of where we're kicking goals.

MG: It makes it all worthwhile doesn't it?

RDS: Yeah. That's the shining light for me, knowing that if I can do it with that young lady, there are bound to be others that I can do it with.

MG: There are so many opportunities in local government to do good. Did you have similar opportunities in the police force?

RDS: Yeah, absolutely. I can't remember who it was who said it this morning, but someone today talked about the opportunities for us to give training and experience and qualifications to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mobs. It's irrelevant whether they stay with us because if we can help set them up for life I think that's the bonus. That's definitely how I feel and that's how I used to feel when we were in policing when we had our Indigenous employment career development strategy, which went across all streams of employment into the police force.

It had school-based apprenticeships, it had Aboriginal community police officer programs, constable programs, auxiliary programs, and we tried and achieved very well at it in terms of Indigenous employment. But that's an area for improvement. I was an integral part of that pre-development strategy being developed for the police perspective of things. I've only been here two-and-a-half years in local government, I know where there are areas that I'd love to improve on and I'm fortunate because Alan [Tiwi Islands Shire Council CEO Alan Hudson], no matter what you say about CEOs being stale, pale and male – he’s not stale! He fits two of those categories being male and pale but he's certainly not stale. Because if you're looking at measuring his performance against that stuff, I mean this old bugger gets a tick in the box in a lot of areas and that's just me talking personally where he's given us a hand and stuff. I know that I can write to him and say, ‘hey look, this is a situation, I need to change this, that and whatever, can you support it?’ And he goes, ‘yeah’.

MG: It's good to have that… Where do you go most commonly to get information to support you in your role?

RDS: Alan's probably the most significant person that I go to. I haven't explored people at my level in other shires, not for any reason, I just refer to legislation for guidance, or I'll ask Alan, or I'll bounce it off of David Jan or Tony Tapsell from LGANT. So they're the main sources.

MG: What's the biggest lesson you've learned in your current role?

RDS: Biggest lesson? It doesn't matter if you're family, you're still going to get sworn at.

MG: That would be a challenge that you face that a lot of other people working in senior levels at local government wouldn’t face.

RDS: Yeah, and that's okay. I tell my family that if I play favourites and I don't chip you for this or that, it will reflect poorly on me. It means that people can't trust me to do the job that I'm here to do.

MG: It's a big challenge facing Indigenous people working in local government because you're expected to support your family as well as the council.

RDS: Yeah.

MG: It's often difficult for family members to understand that.

RDS: Yeah, I mean I told you that shining light story. A perfect example of an opposite story is my own nephew, my own flesh and blood. Time after time after time I've put so much energy into that young fellow to help him to get a qualification in his chosen area which is mechanical, he just kept not turning up. I just kept having to explain to him, I needed to keep onto him to try to help him realise the error of his ways and get him to work and then he'd do good for a fortnight but then just fall away. His perspective was that I was always on his case. So trying to find a happy medium in that is difficult.

MG: Would one of those mentoring programs have helped him do you think, with someone who is maybe not part of the family?

RDS: I think his current place, where he's at now, is about him. He even told me in some correspondence that he was required to write in addressing whether or not we should continue to employ him, realising that he was only looking out for himself, not caring about his work or his family and stuff like that. That still is the case and he's going to grow up, he's only 21, he's going to grow up and we can only hope that he'll wake up soon.

MG: It sounds like he's got good people around him who can support him when he does decide to wake up.

RDS: Yeah.

MG: The final question is; what's so special about the Tiwi Islands?

RDS: Aside from it being just the most pristine waters and beautiful country, in terms of the shire, we really pride ourselves on two things which we think make us unique. The fact that we actually practice decentralised local government. The CEO, directors and managers all live on the island. We live in the general population in our houses, and that's pretty special because I know that the current minister, when he was holding a different portfolio in Darwin, believed that all shires existed on the Stuart Highway.

The second aspect is just the number of Aboriginal women that we have, not just women but Aboriginal women. I gave you some figures before but that makes me so proud. We employ nearly 46 per cent women in our shire, and when we are talking about Tiwi women at management level or above, we're at 35 per cent. So that's pretty deadly.

MG: Yeah.

RDS: I'm certainly no bra burner by any stretch but those things make me proud. You know that's gender equity and we promote that in every angle of our recruitment because that's something we're proud about. We're proud about the fact that we've got nearly as many women in our workforce as we do men. So come and join us, you're going to make our team richer.

MG: Wonderful.

RDS: That's about it.

MG: Wow, thanks Rosanna. You’ve told an inspiring story.

Rosanna De Santis is the Director of Corporate and Community Services with the Tiwi Islands Shire Council in the Northern Territory.

Melissa Gibbs is the Deputy Director of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government.

Back to the Town Crier

Welcome to the Town Crier

Melissa Gibbs — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 01:24:59 +0000

Greetings from ACELG.

Welcome to the Town Crier, ACELG's new blogging platform for practitioners, councillors and others with an interest in the pursuit of local government excellence.

We hope you like the icons on the new website. These have been prepared by the Walkley Award winning cartoonist and national treasure, First Dog on the Moon. We encourage you to have a look around the new site, contribute to the Knowledge Exchange network and consider submitting a blog post. Also, don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

The Town Crier is a place for everyone with an interest in local government to come and contribute to animated conversations about the sector. The Town Crier is designed to be an inclusive, supportive and interactive environment to hear about what's going on in the sector, and to contribute ideas and thoughts, so please drop by and participate in the discussions.

To the Town Crier I'll be contributing a regular piece called the "Town Crier Highflier" where I will interview intriguing people that I come across in my work for ACELG. My first "Town Crier Highflier" is Rosanna De Santis, Director Corporate and Community Services at Tiwi Islands Shire Council. Rosanna has a rich blended heritage; both Italian and Aboriginal. She joined the NT Police Force as a cadet and for 23 years policed in locations all over the NT, including in many remote communities. She recently returned home to the Tiwi Islands to take up a senior leadership role at the Tiwi Islands Shire Council. She recently presented at the 3rd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employment in Local Government Roundtable convened by Local Government Managers Australia and ACELG, and captivated the audience with tales of her experience of walking in two worlds

I will be interviewing a range of people from across the broad spectrum of local government in subsequent posts. One of the things I most enjoy about local government is the diversity of the sector. As we know from ACELG's profile of the local government workforce, local government employs over 192,500 people across over 400 occupations, and there are around 6,600 elected councillors in about 560 councils across the six states and the Northern Territory, so it is inevitable that there will be more than a few characters amongst the lot. Throw into the mix the folks working for local government associations and professional bodies, researchers, state and territory government employees with an interest in local government, and there is a rich source of interview material for years to come. I hope to introduce you to just a sample of the passionate people working in and serving the local government sector via the "Town Crier Highflier" segment. Of course, we would welcome nominations of people who you think should be exposed to a larger audience, so please [email protected]">make contact with your suggestions.

Speaking of characters…did you know?

That Mayor Bertrand Cadart of Glamorgan-Spring Bay in Tasmania has been recognised for "distinguished civil achievements and irreproachable conduct" by the French President Francois Hollande? The prestigious Ordre national du Merite (National Order of Merit) is reserved for French citizens living abroad who have served their communities with diligence. Mayor Cadart is the 18th recipient of the award, out of about four million French nationals living abroad, for 2013.

Last year, Mayor Cadart was recognised by the Local Government Association of Tasmania (LGAT) with a Life Members' Award for Meritorious Service. The media release issued by LGAT refers to Mayor Cadart's flamboyant style and passionate advocacy for building the profile of Tasmania’s east coast nationally and internationally. According the media release, Mayor Cadart is a motorcycle enthusiast and Ulysses Club member, and traded his "fuel-guzzling council car for a two-wheeled motor scooter." And how about this for a truly "we're not worthy" achievement: Mayor Cadart worked on and appeared in the original Mad Max film opposite Mel Gibson. He played the character Clunk. RESPECT!

Life Member, Lynn Mason, said of Mayor Cadart: “Bertrand is an inspiring, passionate, committed and visionary leader, and a deserving recipient of the Life Members' Award for Meritorious Service.”

And how about?

Mayor Dr Felicity-ann Lewis, who has been named South Australia's Australian of the Year for 2014. Mayor Lewis is the President of the Australian Local Government Association and Mayor of the City of Marion. She has been recognised for her work in local government, dedication to the reconciliation movement, and settlement of migrants and refugees. Last year, Mayor Lewis completed her PhD, so it was quite a year her.

Why not tell us about a local government character you have come across? They don't have to be award winners like Mayors Lewis and Cadart. They don't even need to have appeared in an Aussie cult classic film. Along with the award winners and film stars, we'd like to profile the lesser known characters working away at the coal face. [email protected]">Make contact, and we'll profile them in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, stay tuned for new blog posts, and explore the rest of the new and improved ACELG website!

Melissa Gibbs is the Deputy Director of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government.