 Engineers take up the
challenges
President of the American Public Works Association
and keynote speaker at the recent first International Congress of
Local Government Engineers and Public Works, Robert Miller, told
delegates that public works professionals must be willing to embrace
change or 'risk becoming the technological dinosaurs of the 21st
Century'.
Editorial
As the clock counts
down to the next millennium, communities across the nation, and the
governments that represent them, face some important issues running
through to our Centenary of Federation on 1 January 2001.
President's comment
Each
edition we feature the views of a Local Government Association
President. The following is from Councillor Margaret Vigants, Local
Government Association of the Northern Territory.
Cutting edge Congress CD
Instead of the
traditional large booklet, delegates attending the International
Local Government Engineering and Public Works Congress received a CD
Rom covering the conference proceedings and papers. Believed to be
the first Local Government conference in Australia, and quite
possibly overseas, to use this leading edge technology, the 650
Megabyte CD includes over 400 MB of video.
GST - prepare now
The GST will be
implemented in just under 11 months. This is enough time for Councils
to be ready if, but only if, preparations start immediately.
Australia Day Y2K
Western Australian
communities have the opportunity to record their Australia Day 2000
celebrations in a documentary video.
Community involvement in Office
extension
When the Shire of Kent in Western Australia determined
that it needed to extend the Shire Offices this was greeted with some
scepticism by local residents. As many Councils find when they need
to spend money to do their job more efficiently, those who are remote
from Council operations do not always see the need for this outlay.
Changes we have seen
Some of the most
valuable and interesting information about the society we live in is
not contained in books but in people's memories. Recognising this,
Toowoomba City Council has produced a video featuring the
recollections of its older citizens.
Business Entry Point and The New Tax
System
In July, legislation for A New Tax System (ANTS) Act 1999
passed into law. One of the objectives of ANTS is to make it easier
for business to conduct dealings with government by establishing a
system for registering businesses or 'enterprises', and issuing them
with unique identifying numbers &endash; an Australian Business
Number, or ABN.
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