President’s column – 16 July 2021

Thank you
to local governments around the nation who have pulled out all the stops to aid
the national COVID recovery process, including repeatedly offering to support
the vaccination rollout.

Given
councils have been providing community immunisation services for decades, state
and territory health agencies ought to have snapped up offers of local
government facilities and expertise.

ALGA made
similar proposals to the Commonwealth on your behalf, recognising that while
the states provide health services, the money and therefore the leadership
flows from Canberra.

In the
main, our suggestions have been overlooked. Now our two biggest cities are
again in lockdown.

The Delta
variant of COVID-19 that has led to the lockdowns is more highly infectious
than the original virus, granted.

But had
more Australians been vaccinated, further lockdowns might not have been
needed. 

That was
the point of our wanting to support mass vaccination efforts – community
resistance has to be built up so job-creation and economic recovery efforts are
not continually held hostage.

If there is a silver lining to this misstep in governance and administration, it is that it has underlined the folly of not having local government in the National Cabinet.

State and
federal leaders did not have the benefit of hearing from those closest to their
communities when the vaccine rollout was being discussed.

Council facilities, resources, and local knowledge were not therefore incorporated into the planning – with predictable results.

ALGA’s
campaign to reverse the National Cabinet decision denying representation to
local government has been given fresh urgency.

I hope many
of you will remind our federal and state MPs of that if you get the chance.

Linda Scott,
ALGA President