Minister Albanese addresses the Australian Council of Local Government - Welcome Dinner

E&OE

Well thanks very much Ellen and it's terrific that you could help us out again this year, at the second Australian Council of Local Government. 

I want to also acknowledge the traditional owners and pay my respects to their elders past and present.  And I want to thank Matilda House and her team as they always do giving us a great welcome to country. 

I want to also acknowledge others who are here this evening, the Prime Minister is about to arrive, he's been of course welcoming the King and Queen of Spain and he has welcomed the royalty of Spain, now he'll welcome the royalty of Local Government in a short period of time.

I want to acknowledge my ministerial colleagues who are here.  It is tough on them in a sitting week to say well it's on again.'  But none of them have complained, none of them have been dragooned, they're all here as volunteers and I want toI think my colleagues would excuse me for singling out Wayne Swan, the treasurer of this nation who is with us again this evening.  Thank you Wayne.

To Geoff Lake the President of ALGA and the executive of ALGA too, John Stanhope, the Chief Minister of the ACT, great to be in this magnificent capital city which you have the privilege of leading, to the leader of the National Party, Warren Truss is here this evening, to other parliamentary secretaries and parliamentary colleagues welcome one and all but a particular welcome to those of you from local government. 

Most of you work damn hard, you work extremely hard, well all of you work damn hard, most of you get paid a pittance for it, it indeed costs you money for the privilege of looking after your local communities and we respect that fact. 

We also, and I go to Matilda's welcome to country I thought was particularly appropriate because Matilda spoke about her objective as an indigenous representative of having respect between indigenous Australians and those who have come in much more recent times to this great land.  What this event is about is just that.  It's about respect, respect between the National Government and Local Government. 

And last year, through the formation of the Australian Council of Local Government we indicated in a very practical way, in an organisational way through this event but much more importantly I think on a day to day basis that we wanted to change the way that we dealt with each other and a starting point was one of respect and I hope that it's a mutual relationship, I'm sure it will benefit greatly.

I certainly respect the fact that many of you have travelled great distances to be here.  Many of you have indeed I think, sorry about this John but I think it is important to acknowledge many people are here from much better climates at this stage of the year to come to Canberra.  There was indeed a number of people I've met already from northern parts of the country.  I want to wish those people from north of this state, and particularly one little corner of Queensland, I want to say that I'm with you until 8 o'clock

And it's not many times you can come to a dinner and be saying that you want to cheer on the Cockroaches but that's exactly what my position is as a loyal New South Wales resident.

Oh dear.  It's very hard I've got to say when you've got the Prime Minister and the Treasurer from Queensland to get away with sledging Queensland so I thought I'd do it before the boss got here.  So that's just between us.  Don't let him know.

The Rudd Labor Government want to acknowledge your contribution to local communities.  Earlier today we recognised some of those contributions at the national awards.  I extend my congratulations to all of the category winners.  Very soon when the Prime Minister is here we will be announcing the two national award winners. 

You're also here today because local government is the sphere of government that is the closest to the people.  We are committed to a direct relationship with you. 

All of you have seen first hand the impact of the global economic recession.  This has had an impact on economies throughout the globe but it has also had an impact on local communities.  All of you have stories to tell.  We want to hear from you, we want to listen to your stories; we want to have an ongoing, real partnership with you. 

So in part what tonight and tomorrow's meeting is about isn't the concrete things that can come from it over this 24 hour period, although there will be some of them, it is also about that ongoing relationship, that dialogue, building trust, building respect so that we can have that ongoing dialogue between us of mutual interest because we certainly recognise that as the national government that it is critical that we stay in touch, in touch, day after day. 

We know that not only have you been impacted by the global economic recession, for many of you, particularly those impacted by the Victorian Bushfires or the North Queensland floods or the Northern New South Wales floods you've had on top of that to deal with those issues where at the pointy end of the spectrum it is Local Government that is impacted so strongly and we respect the extraordinary leadership that those councils in particular have shown in recent times and I think it would be appropriate to acknowledge that leadership here tonight.

We set a solid foundation for this new partnership last year. 

Together we are delivering the $800 million regional and local community infrastructure program.  This is delivering more than 3,300 projects across the nation.  Each and every Local Government area benefited from that program. 

It is important, as I said at ALGA on Monday, that you keep your foot on the accelerator because the great benefit of this program is two things.  One is its nature of the projects, it wasn't me in a ministerial office or bureaucrats in my department in Canberra, it was you on the ground, the elective representatives of local communities who determined what the priorities were for your local communities.  And that was critical because you chose projects that are supporting jobs and the local economy in your local community today but to build a lasting legacy of community infrastructure for tomorrow.  So we think given the circumstances that the community infrastructure program is particularly important.

We also have of course a larger nation building agenda but we regard Local Government as being particularly important for it.  Tomorrow we will have a discussion about reform, about moving forward, about how we deal with the challenges which you're facing re: financial sustainability, how we deal with particular challenges have been considered already by some sub-groups which have met this afternoon.  Certainly our Bill Shorten hosted a meeting of mayors from the Victorian bushfire affected areas.  Jenny Maclean has hosted a discussion between councils with larger indigenous communities. 

This is an opportunity for you to tell us what you want from your National Government and I certainly welcome you here this evening.  I look forward to this being an ongoing dialogue.

Governments are judged by how they change the way that government, business, communities function.  We want this to be a permanent reform.  Not a one off, just like last year, not a forum whereby it will come and go.  We want this to be a permanent change in the nature of the relationship between the National Government and Local Government.  The feedback I've had in the last year is very much that you want that too and I look forward working with you to that end.  Have a great evening.