Four Armidale Regional councillors attended the three-day Local Government NSW Annual Conference in Sydney this week: mayor Simon Murray, Crs Debra O'Brien and Brad Widders as voting delegates.
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Cr Margaret O'Connor also attended, invited by Cr O'Brien, but not nominated or approved by council.
The conference is state councils' biggest policy-making event. It was held in the Sydney suburb of Warwick Farm from Monday to Wednesday, October 14 to 16.
Member councils put forward motions, which, if passed at conference, become resolutions that LGNSW takes to the state government on councils' behalf.
"A lot of people underestimate what local government can do for their areas," Cr O'Brien said. "They think: 'Oh, it's unimportant, it's just roads and whatever' - but in fact, right here at your doorstep you have a really important mechanism to advocate about all kinds of issues that affect your area."
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Five Armidale Regional Council motions were passed, including removing the emergency services levy; establishing a multi-million dollar regional marketing fund; extending pensioner concessions to low-income renters; and changing building standards to improve energy and water efficiency.
One of the most important, Cr O'Connor and Cr O'Brien believed, was reducing air pollution from wood smoke. The motion proposed that when official monitoring shows serious breaches of national air quality standards, the NSW government should provide resources and assistance to help councils meet national standards as soon as possible.
Armidale exceeded national air quality standards 31 times last year, Cr O'Connor said. Wood smoke particles can exacerbate and accelerate disease; shorten lives; and cause respiratory problems in small children and the aged.
"It's quite a burden for local government to have this responsibility," Cr O'Brien said. "We are tasked with people's health and safety, but we've no ability to provide incentives to help people switch to cleaner heating. If we're going to abide by those national air quality standards, we can't do that without some assistance to change the way people heat their homes."
The motion was passed, Cr O'Connor said, without a murmur of dissent. Last year, she said, she was applauded when she asked the then-Shadow Minister for Local Government if he would help council get money to fix Armidale's air quality problems.
"From my perspective," she said, "that shows there's consistent support, not just in government policy or local government policy. All of our peers across the state want this fixed - and are sympathetic towards getting it fixed."
The state and federal governments, though, were not helping, she believed.
"They're using now a metric where they will intervene on air quality provided a certain number of people are affected. Who does that mean is going to get the help? People in Western Sydney? I think so. Little tiny communities like Armidale ... are not statistically relevant because of their low populations. That's something we have to break through."
Local Government NSW will craft the successful motions into a rejigged new two-year policy agenda, and then lobby the government
"What they do is meet with the premier and the relevant ministers, and just hammer the table with them, and say: Fix!" Cr O'Connor said.
She said she had great confidence in the current and recently returned president, Linda Scott.
"She's a woman of her word. She appears to be a woman who actually does what she says she's going to do."
Cr O'Connor said she went to the conference every year to network.
"The place is full of different government and private agencies all spruiking what they're doing. You can quickly talk to the people in government departments; I give them feedback about what's going on in my town as well."