Mayoral memo | Teaching children about the responsibilities of local government

One of those KLAs is called Human Society and its Environment. One component of Stage 3 (Years 5 and 6) is to learn about responsibilities of Local, State and Federal Governments.

With the previous Dubbo City Council, most schools in Dubbo would arrange their relevant year group to go on a school excursion to council where the Mayor of the day would meet with the students in the Council Chambers and explain various aspects of Local Government to the students.

When I became mayor I continued the exercise with my favourite part- the mock debate. I would ask the students to pick a topic that was of interest at their school and we would select students to become councillors and council staff and go through a debate to simulate a small part of a council meeting.

School groups stopped visiting council after the amalgamation but I have revived the practice with our first group of students visiting council this week.

As part of the overall learning experience, I normally focus on Local Government but also ask a few questions about State and Federal Governments. This week was a little tougher though. I normally ask questions about the Premier and State Government but after an election on the weekend, some of the obvious answers were not quite as obvious.

And that started me thinking.

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When I was first elected to council on 27 March 2004, the ALP was in power and it continued that way until 2011. Now we are back to an ALP Government, will we see dramatic changes in Local Government?

More than likely we will see Greg Warren as the Minister for Local Government.

Greg was born in Dubbo and is the former Mayor of Camden Council so has knowledge pertinent to the local area and Council experience. That bodes well.

It is rare for Dubbo to have a representative in the NSW Legislative Council but the new Government will include Stephen Lawrence as a Member of the Legislative Council so we will have an additional voice supporting Dubbo's requirements.

As Chairperson of Regional Cities NSW, I had already started meetings with Shadow Ministers over the last six months and I have already started the process to meet with relevant Ministers as they are announced to ensure they are fully aware of the needs of regional communities.

A change in government will bring about some changes in policies and focus at a State level and we will need to see how they apply at a Local Government level but, regardless of who is in power at the State level, I see the great work this current group of councillors has undertaken over the last fifteen months will continue.

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