June 15, 2015
The Australian Federal Government will trial a change in the rules surrounding Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) to see if it helps communities recover more quickly from natural disasters.
During a three year trial period, councils will be allowed to use their own staff for disaster recovery work rather than be forced to hire contractors.
The change was announced by the Federal Government today at the Regional Cooperation and Development Forum in Canberra, organised by the Australian Local Government Association.
Minister for Justice Michael Keenan told the Forum he had written to Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad proposing some existing NDRRA rules be suspended for a three year period between 2014 and 2017 to trial the new labour arrangements.
This afternoon Ms Trad welcomed the offer, describing the decision as “a win for common sense”.
“The Palaszczuk Government called on the Abbott Government to urgently reconsider Commonwealth restrictions forcing councils to use contract labour for recovery work, given the impact that severe natural disasters had on local communities and the sheer scale of damage,” Ms Trad said.
“The use of council day labour is often the best value-for-money option to get the work done and ensure communities can quickly rebuild in the wake of a natural disaster.”
Ms Trad said trials in 2011 and 2012 had shown there were also potential cost savings available.
“Following the Queensland floods in December 2011 and January 2012, a trial of day labour found councils delivered reconstruction works faster and more efficiently, saving taxpayers approximately $160 million,” Ms Trad said.
“It’s good to see that common sense has prevailed.”
SBRC Mayor Wayne Kratzmann, who is representing the South Burnett at the Forum, described the decision as “a big win”.
He said damage caused by the 2011 and 2013 floods across the South Burnett had taken much longer to repair than would have been the case if the SBRC had been allowed to use its own staff to do the work rather than being forced to use contractors.
“The problem with something like the floods is that the disaster isn’t just limited to our own area.” Mayor Kratzmann said.
“The floods had an impact on most of South-East Queensland and everyone needed contractors at the same time.
“This caused long delays that could have been avoided. After all, Council had most of the equipment to do the work already here in our depots, along with trained staff who knew how to use that equipment.”
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Mayor Kratzmann was also upbeat about another news announcement at the Forum that the next round of the Federal Government’s national “Bridges To Recovery” program will be limited to local governments only.
The $100 million grant round will open in about a month’s time.
The Mayor said the first round of the program had been open to both State and local governments, and State Governments had secured the lion’s share of that round’s funding.
“We have many old timber bridges in our Shire that need replacing, but we were unable to get funding to fix even one of our bridges from that round,” the Mayor said.
“Limiting the next round to local governments will raise the odds a bit,” he said.
“The South Burnett will certainly be having another go to see if we can secure some funding assistance for our bridge replacement program.”
The Australian Local Government Association also welcomed the announcement.
“The intention of the Bridges Renewal Program is to help Local Government address the backlog in maintaining increasingly ageing local community infrastructure, and we are pleased that the second round reflects this by offering the funds directly to Local Government,” ALGA president Troy Pickard said.
“The funding under this program will be targeted by councils to upgrading bridges, which play an essential part in sustaining local economies because of the important role they play in connecting freight networks across regions.”
