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Launceston to host National Local Roads Congress

Launceston will this year host Local Government’s leading transport conference, the National Local Roads and Transport Congress, to be held on 3–5 July. This year’s program, themed Unifying Local Government’s transport agenda, will cover a range of core policy and operational issues for both metropolitan and regional/rural delegates.

The congress will focus on options for funding the future roads and transport needs of Local Government – in particular, how we should best use our existing resources (especially Roads to Recovery) to set up a strong case for further transport funding partnerships with all levels of government.

As shown in the campaign to secure the renewal of the Roads to Recovery program, a strong and unified approach which recognises the value and variations of transport priorities in both urban and country areas, will be a key element in securing transport funding in the future. Two concurrent sessions will give delegates up to date information on issues of special interest to both metropolitan and regional/rural Councils.

Speakers from Local Government, industry and community groups, and national and state transport agencies will provide practical and innovative examples on how local communities can improve transport services in four important areas: sustaining regional transport services; managing transport demand; moving freight; and congestion, noise, safety – pressures on residential amenity.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services, John Anderson, will head the list of senior Federal politicians to address the Congress. The keynote address will be given by Professor David Hensher, Director of the Institute of Transport Studies. The Institute is the Australian Key Centre of Teaching and Research in Transport Management at the University of Sydney and Monash University.

Professor Hensher’s particular interests are transport economics, transport strategy, sustainable transport, productivity measurement, traveller behaviour analysis, stated choice experiments, dynamic discrete-continuous choice modelling, privatisation and deregulation.

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