Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
Finally, the chapter concludes with a brief discussion applying the concept of public
value to the evolving service-delivery task of Australian local governments.
Local government and Australia’s system of government
Australia is a federation with three levels of government: Commonwealth (national),
state and territory (regional) and local governments. Australia’s system of local
government is mostly established through the separate constitutions of each state
and territory. There are, in effect, seven different systems across the country. Indeed,
localgovernmentsareoftenreferredtoas‘creaturesofstategovernments’. 1
Unlike other countries, local governments are not recognised in Australia’s
national Constitution. A 1988 referendum to change this was defeated, and campaigns
for another referendum have not been successful. 2 However, local governments
are still represented at Australia’s chief intergovernmental forum, the
Council of Australian Governments. 3
Their legislative foundations mean local governments occupy a somewhat
tenuous position in the federation. Many of their powers and responsibilities are
subordinate to state and national governments, and there is often significant
overlap between their responsibilities and those of state governments. These
foundations also place a range of constraints on local government service delivery.
For instance, the validity of higher levels of government funding local government
service-delivery activities has been challenged in the High Court.
Number, size and type of local governments
Australia’s earliest local governments were established in Perth in 1838, Adelaide in
1840 and Sydney in 1842. These were incorporated to provide town improvement
services, such as street lighting, for early colonial capitals. Other local governments
started as collectives of ratepayers formed to provide services to their properties. 4
Over the next 70 years, the number of local governments grew to over 1,000. Today,
thereisjustoverhalfthatnumber,althoughthisoftenchangesaslocalgovernments
are impacted by ongoing structural reform. 5
Like Australia’s states and territories, the 537 local governments across the
country vary substantially in population size, land area and economic dominance.
The largest by population is Brisbane, with over 1.2 million residents, while the
smallest, in rural Western Australia (WA), has just a few thousand residents. The
largest by land area is East Pilbara in WA, which covers 380,000 square-kilometres,
1 Larcombe 1978; Stilwell and Troy 2000.
2 Stilwell and Troy 2000.
3 Phillimore and Fenna 2017.
4 Larcombe 1978.
5 Dollery and Grant 2010.
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