The Northern Territory Government has completed a review into the financial sustainability of shires, concluding that while shires are viable there are some key issues that need to be addressed to further improve them in the long term.

 

The review also concluded that existing shire council structures are appropriate in continuing to serve the needs of the communities.

 

The Territory Government commissioned Deloitte Touche Tohmatus to review the financial sustainability of shires in November last year, which included a steering committee comprising of local government specialist and senior Territory Government officers.

 

Local Government Minister, Malarndirri McCarthy today released the first Review of Councils’ Financial Sustainability report, since the amalgamation of shires in 2008, and said a Taskforce will be set up to review and manage the implementation of the 32 recommendations. 

 

“The shires in this report and the Local Government Association of the NT are committed to working with the Territory and Australian Governments to ensure the financial sustainability of our shires into the future,” said Minister McCarthy.

 

“The report identifies issues that need to be addressed to ensure the long term financial sustainability of shires, and specifically changes to their revenue and expenditure functions.

 

“The report also provides recommendations to improve the operations and the legislative and reporting framework applicable to shire councils.

 

“Despite this, the report does not recommend going back to the previous set up of smaller community councils – in fact it argues for further amalgamation.

 

The review by Deloitte was completed in May this year and has resulted in a final report containing:

  • Financial analysis of the Councils’ financial information;
  • Identification of the critical issues including a risk assessment;
  • Commentary on Council financial sustainability across core and non-core services and fee-for-service operations;
  • Commentary on the effectiveness of current funding arrangements; and
  • Commentary on whether the current structure of the Councils is appropriate to meet future service delivery requirements.

 


A copy of the report is now available on the department’s website at

www.localgovernment.nt.gov.au/local_government_reviews