NT local government: City of Palmerston’s one-in-five staff vacancy rate a sign of the times

One of the Northern Territory’s most populous local government areas is struggling to fill staff – and they aren’t the only ones. A new territory-wide PR campaign will try and reverse the damaging trend.

Palmerston Civic Plaza. Picture: SEM Group

The City of Palmerston, the Northern Territory’s second largest local government area by population, says staff attraction and retention is a “key issue” for the municipality, as almost one in five vacancies remain unfilled.

The Territory’s second city is not the only feeling the crunch, with one regional council telling the NT News its vacancies were so crippling it is often only able to function at a “minimum” standard.

So dire have the attraction and retention difficulties become for some – but not all – NT councils, the Local Government Association of the Northern Territory (LGANT) is about to launch a PR campaign to counter it.

According to documents made available by the City of Palmerston, the council had an average vacancy rate of 19 per cent in Q4 2023.

While the council had an approved FTE of 97.55, only 78.55 FTEs were employed as at December 31 last year.

The City of Palmerston had an average staff vacancy rate of 19 per cent in Q4 2023. Picture: City of Palmerston

“Recruitment and retention of staff continues to be a key issue for City of Palmerston,” a report presented to councillors noted.

Trudy Braun, Victoria Daly Regional Council’s director of corporate and community services, said it also had an above average vacancy rate, although she did not put an exact figure on the shortfall.

“[We are] often left with the minimum only being achieved,” Ms Braun said.

“Staff often feel like they are on the back foot.”

Workforce issues were becoming more pronounced for councils like hers, Ms Braun said.

“Attracting new employees to remote areas has become more and more difficult over the past several years. We can advertise three to four times before we get suitable applicants for some positions,” she said.

Alice Springs Town Council (ASTC) and the City of Darwin both reported their workforce was in a good place.

Andrew Wilsmore, chief executive of ASTC, said his council was “proud” to say it had a staff vacancy rate of 3.54 per cent, a historically low level, while Darwin’s acting chief executive Matt Grassmayr said its vacancies were reasonably constant at 10–15 per cent.

Current vacancies at Northern Territory local governments. Picture: Careers at Council

LGANT chief executive Sean Holden said factors affecting workforce attraction and retention included “the transient nature of the NT, remoteness, cost of living, housing shortages, a lack of understanding about who and what local government is and the jobs therein, and burnout of frontline staff due to escalated juvenile crime”.

With workforce shortages affecting many sectors, both in the NT and nationally, it is an “employees’ market,” Mr Holden said.

Sean Holden is the chief executive of the Local Government Association of the Northern Territory. Picture: Supplied

“People can jump from job to job, sector to sector chasing greater opportunity and greater pay.

“This is in part due to the NT Government continuously looking to fill its vacancies and they pay higher and with better conditions on average more than any other sector.

“We cannot compete with the NT or Commonwealth governments.

“We can offer, however, lifestyle, work life balance and opportunity to experience real issues on the ground that the others cannot.”

Mr Holden said LGANT would be launching a public relations blitz shortly in order to “position local government as an employer of choice … explaining what the local government sector is and what types of jobs are on offer”.