Reading the front page article in the Armidale Independent Wednesday 8 June 2011 titled “Paved in Gold or just ‘pie in the sky’ from State government” I found it difficult to understand why Armidale Dumaresq Council General Manager was expecting that a Council by Council backlog audit “would go a long way in helping to deliver better roads to the region”, and the implication that the “State Government would meet the shortfall” of ADC road infrastructure backlog of $9m.
The Urban Institute of Australia interpretation seems to be “it will be the first step in unlocking areas of Sydney and the State in general and useful in identifying infrastructure bottlenecks, particularly those that could yield short-term gains in the provision of housing”.
Councils hit by recent natural disasters hope that there will be funding to re-establish vital infrastructure in these areas but are concerned that a two-year wait until every Council has completed a backlog audit is too long, as indeed it is. Approximately half of the State’s councils have in fact completed an audit that was supposed to be done by Dec 2010; but that timeframe is now being extended to 2013 while the other half do what should have already been done.
Does the General Manager actually understand what the Minister for Local Government said in his media release Tuesday, May 31, 2011, or is he diverting attention from Council’s backlog problem?
The Minister sated that the State Government is working with local governments to identify required projects and develop strategies to help Councils fund and build them. Hence the four main objectives of the audit are:
1. Provide Council Funding for internal auditing.
2. Assist Councils in long-term infrastructure asset management and financial planning.
3. Assist in Council debit management.
4. Help councils with training in financial planning and asset management.
The Minister also said “the infrastructure audit will help Councils to review their rates and allow them to plan for special variations on their Council rates for specific infrastructure programs in the future” and this is presumably why Mr Burns is applauding the State Government on the announcement.
Furthermore, the Minister stated: “where important shortfalls exist once the backlog audit is completed we have an infrastructure renewal fund which essentially will mean where Councils need to borrow money to reduce that backlog, then the State Government will pay half the interest.”
The ADC General Manager should not hold his breath waiting for our streets to be “paved in gold.”
Jan Kleeman,
Armidale
