Cafe Society: LGAT chief executive Katrena Stephenson on striking the right balance over planning matters

Planning issues are among the most misunderstood elements of local council operations, says a government chief who knows.

Local Government Association of Tasmania chief Dr Katrena Stephenson. Picture: EDDIE SAFARIK

KATRENA Stephenson feels for rookie councillors stuck between a rock and a hard place over divisive developments.

If the rock is their commitment to represent local community wishes, the hard place is their requirement to objectively assess applications strictly in accordance with the planning scheme.

The worst part is sometimes still to come — when they face community members who don’t understand the constraint.

“We see it in Hobart with high rise, with Lake Malbena [in the Central Highlands], up the East Coast with [Cambria Green], and it can be completely overwhelming, particularly for new councillors,” says Katrena.

Public interest in planning matters is soaring, but commensurate understanding is not.

“When [councillors] sit as a planning authority, they have to leave their representative role behind, and that’s incredibly difficult for some of these controversial decisions, because they are getting lobbied quite hard.”

Here’s a tip from Katrena, who is the chief executive of the Local Government Association of Tasmania: if you would like to oppose a particular development in a written submission, work up your case against the planning scheme criteria. It will be more effective than an emotive argument.

“It’s not about how it looks or makes you feel,” she said.

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When we meet at Bear With Me cafe in South Hobart, we soon get on to the topic of council amalgamations, which were the subject of an open-ended State Government feasibility study released two years ago.

LGAT is the peak body for all 29 of Tasmania’s local councils. Some people think that’s about 20 councils too many, others disagree entirely.

“There’s a school of academic thought that there should be more councils, not less, but doing different things,” says Katrena.

While research consistently showed amalgamation led rates to settle at the highest rather than lowest point, it also showed merger advantages, including a better range of services. Bigger councils were also able to lobby higher levels of government more effectively.

Whatever happens, Katrena says the level of government closest to the people will always be important, possibly moreso in future.

“More and more, state and federal governments want to be able to deliver things locally and they need a partner.”

That rollout facilitation gobbles resources, though, and that’s why LGAT’s umbrella body is lobbying the Federal Government to recognise that tax revenue reaching local councils is in decline — and to do something about it.

“If we are to play critical partners in delivering federal and state agendas, we can’t afford to let the castles collapse,” says Katrena.

Looming demographic challenges as they affect council revenues and the ability to maintain today’s level of services are among her biggest concerns.

“Our smaller rural regional areas are not growing and their populations are ageing, and that will impact on rates, which are the main way councils fund their services,” she says. “The service expectations won’t lower, but the amount of money coming through will.

“Councils will have to come up with different ways of working or they will have to have very honest conversations with their communities about what they really can deliver.

“They won’t be able to be that provider of last resort, filling a void [such as supporting a local GP or local aged care] when state or federal government services have fallen away.”

Amalgamations are not necessarily the answer to belt tightening.

“There might be other ways, through resource sharing, including moving office functions into a central organisation.”

She points to Kentish and Latrobe councils, which operate with a single general manager and divvy up some services to avoid duplication, as an example of constructive change.

Most if not all councils, though, still run their own IT systems, handle their own payroll and issue their own rates notices. If that’s to change, Katrena says funding will be needed to standardise systems first.

She also is frustrated by what she says is poor State Government leadership over waste management. “We have been waiting two years for a state action plan on waste,” she says. Last year LGAT members took matters into their own hands, commissioning a feasibility study looking at various innovations, jointly funded by state and local governments.

Recycling costs are rising and Tasmania has a limited ability to recover or reuse materials. Katrena sees this gap as an opportunity to grow a strong recycling industry. She points to new company Poly Marketing, trading as Envorinex, near George Town, which turns polyethylene hay bale wraps into plastic fence posts.

“If the right industry came in, no waste may ever need to be shipped off from Tasmania again.”

Meanwhile, she awaits the new standardised planning scheme and a State Government directions paper on the Local Government Review Act. Proposed changes she backs include removing the need for an incoming mayor to also be separately elected as a councillor.

“It’s a funny idiosyncrasy, but it’s important to address it,” she says.

Embedding principles of good governance and community engagement into the legislation would also be a sound idea, she says.