Australian Local Government Women’s Association- Lismore 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th May 2007

Australian Local Government Women’s Association (NSW) Annual Conference - May 3rd to 6th 2007

Since being elected in 2004 to Council I have been a member of the Australian Local Government Women's Association. I have attended the past two Australian Local Government Women’s Associations (ALGWA) NSW Annual Conferences. I was able this year thanks to my fellow Councillors to attend the 2007 conference. This is a valuable event and resource in my role as a Councillor in Local Government. Sixty delegates representing more than 30 Local Government areas in NSW attended the conference of the Association which has been running for 53 years.

The conference was held at the Lismore Workers Club which is well situated in the main street, close to motels and shops. It was well organised and the keynote speakers were from a variety of different areas of interest and backgrounds.

Cr Sue Page from Penrith City Councill was the President of the Association in 2006/07. She remained elected to the position during the conference.

The keynote address was from Professor Colleen Cartwright, Southern Cross University and she spoke on changing demographics: an ageing population and the challenges for women. In particular there was discussion on the positive impact that could be achieved by keeping retirees in the work force for longer in a mentoring/ skills assisting role. Margot Sweeny spoke about “Living with change or Living to change”? And gave some examples.

Outcomes Local Government Reform Proposals: A representative from the Department of Local Government spoke about a new direction for local Government and planning a sustainable future. This was followed with Hotspots which always brings out the discussion of all members. A hot topic for discussion was the Local Government Minister's announcement that Councillors would have to undergo professional development courses within six months of election. Some delegates believed that this was an important issue but training should be linked to annual Councillor performance reviews, similar to those expected of employees.
The delegates said they believed all Councillors should be offered training but there level of expertise was different and there was a need to offer individual development opportunities.

These could be linked to a review which involved the Councillors:

• Personal development, eg dealing with difficult people, conducting meetings

• Skills eg media, financial

• Knowledge of Local Government and State legislation eg Planning

• Commitment to Community eg. attendance at meetings, community involvement

The behaviour of Councillors, State and Federal Government politicians was questioned again. The introduction of the Code of Conduct and Ethics Committee was discussed and many delegates believed it was a good start but needed to be enforced across all levels of Government if it was to be successful in raising the standard of behaviour.

The afternoon concluded with a tour of the Northern Rivers Waste Depot and viewing of the worm farm, revolve centre, recycling depot and the Botanical Gardens Sites with a commentary as to the workings of each area and who were involved in the running and maintenance of each area.

The second day commenced with a guided tour on foot around the streets of Lismore with reference to culture, history and significance of tiles placed in the footpaths throughout the town. Back at the venue voting for the 2009 conference location took place. Cr Dariea Turrley National member of ALGWA spoke about the actions planned at a national level.

Shauna McIntyre from Lismore City Council spoke about their “Living Library” where people come to the library to be both books about different ways of life and lifestyles and to borrow the living books and spend half an hour at a time learning about how these people live. It was really interesting to listen to and there was also the opportunity to experience this service yourself. Apparently it is a hit with the Lismore community and they have been contacted from other council areas wanting to learn how to carry this out in their own towns.

The Keynote address was from The Hon Linda Burney Minister for Fair Trading, Minister for Youth and Minister for Volunteering. She spoke about strategies to elect women to be representative bodies and also about the struggles that some women have. There was reference made to the low amount of women representation in executive roles and what the possible reasoning could be. This was followed by a workshop held by Jan Strom who spoke about the Councillors conundrum: Community Representative or Represent Community. The last workshop was conducted by Cr Ros Irwin who spoke about “Dancing in the Lions Den- Women Leaders in Local Government in Five Countries” and there was reference and examples given to the different leadership styles in each country.

The afternoon concluded with the voting for executives in which I was nominated and voted in along with a further 8 delegates as an executive member for the Australian Local Government Women’s Association. A delegate’s bus tour of Lismore and surrounding areas finished of the afternoon nicely. We were shown some of the sights and in particular the Koala sanctuary, University located within a rainforest area and an extensive herb garden.

The official dinner provided a guest speaker called Di Morrissey who has worked in the media industry for many years and written several books. Her speech was titled “Life’s Journeys- People, place and spirit play an important role in all our life journeys”. Di started her dream to become an author at the age of eight and not until the age of 40 was able to fulfil that dream. The following day concluded with a walk along the Wilson River, summary of the conference outcomes and the ALGWA executive meeting.

The Conference was a great opportunity to learn more about the workings of Local Government, changes to legislation as well as establishing strong networking with Councillors from other Councils.

Cr Fiona Rossiter