In Local Government we take pride in being passionate about local issues. Does this then make us less capable of thinking about broad, bigger picture matters? Metropolitan Perth has big issues, such as waste disposal, river walls, climate change, education, population growth, transit links, economic development. Some of these questions are too small for State and are too big for Local Government. Even if all our councils are viable, the metropolitan area needs amalgamations to address these and other big question matters. Financial analysis of Councils’ financial sustainability misses this point.
Over the past year it has been my pleasure to work with some amazing people from the Perth regional Natural Resources Management Group. This organisation aims to promote sustainable, coordinated development to the local Councils of the region. They do this at the same time as working to promote a national strategy devoted to Caring for our Country.
Issues addressed recently have included climate change, waste management around Perth, environmental impact of light industry, sustainable, integrated land use planning, documented systems for environmental management and runoff from building sites and factories into the Swan River.
Some of these high phrases can be described much more simply; in the case of runoff, it is simply ethically unacceptable to let our crap run down the drains and to dump our waste in the Swan River. In the case of light industry, that is where sixty percent of the world’s pollution originates so let’s fix it first.
My own take on this is that people who have access to natural areas are generally happier and healthier. Therefore it makes sense to have the concept of Caring for Our Country as part of the decisions, operations and the processes that we manage every day.
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