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Working together pays off

The Tasmanian Government has initiated Tasmania Together, a community driven social, environmental and economic plan, to guide the development of the State's future.

Partnership Agreements between the State Government and Councils are an important part of the Tasmania Together process. "This Government recognises that progressive local communities and sound local economies are fundamental to the social and economic future of the State," said the Premier, Jim Bacon.

"The Partnership Agreements will encourage local input to community and economic development decisions and look at shared responsibilities for delivering services." He said that the Government's primary objective in developing the Agreements is to identify opportunities where State and Local Government can work together to achieve better social and economic results for the local community.

The following principles are being used to develop the Agreements.

• Agreements will be developed in a cooperative manner.
• They will be based on the identification of shared objectives and ways in which both spheres of government can work toward effectively meeting these objectives.
• Within a partnering framework, the State will maintain responsibility for services which require uniform standards or consistency. The State will also retain responsibility for policy decisions regarding Statewide economic development and social issues.
• Changes in responsibilities should achieve overall efficiency and effectiveness results across both spheres of government.
• Where services are more effectively and efficiently delivered at the local level, agreement will be reached on appropriate funding arrangements.
• Any amendment of existing service delivery arrangements will be the subject of contractual arrangements between both parties to ensure appropriate accountability.
• Results from the Partnership Agreements should be measurable through agreed performance indicators.

Priority will be given to issues relevant to the promotion of sustainable economic development and job creation. The Government is committed to developing industry plans in priority areas and will work with Councils to directly promote and develop key local industries as part of this process.

However, where a local community identifies an issue to be of immediate importance, other issues such as environment or social development will also be given priority. The key to the Partnership Agreements is Councils and their local communities deciding what they want.

The State Government is open to entering Agreements with Local Government on three different levels. These include statewide through the Local Government Association of Tasmania; at a regional level with groups of Councils and at the individual Council level.

In June, this year the first Agreement was signed with Circular Head Council. The Partnership Agreement with Launceston City Council is nearing finalisation. These two Councils were part of a pilot program involving both a rural and urban Council. All other Agreements will be negotiated progressively following this successful pilot phase.

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