Tag: conferences

Opening the VAPAC Managers Meeting

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The Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres (VAPAC) promotes a cooperative network of performing arts centres across Victoria and Tasmania. This collaboration aims to achieve best practice in programming, management and operations to foster and develop the performing arts across Victoria and Tasmania.

The Karralyka Centre, a facility owned by the Maroondah City Council, is a member of VAPAC and I was invited to officially open the VAPAC Managers meeting, which was held at Karralyka this morning.

The Karralyka Centre opened in 1980 and the VAPAC meeting provides an opportunity to showcase the Centre. Please continue reading to view the speech delivered at the opening:

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Delegates' Report: Community Houses, water conservation and upcoming conferences

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On the 24th of March I attended the Ringwood Precinct Open House, which provided an opportunity for residents living within the Ringwood Central Activities District and namely the residential area to the west of Ringwood to actively engage council and discuss any concerns they may have.

It was great to see a strong interest from the community and discussion with council around areas such as Eastland, Ringwood Station, open space and traffic. I would like to thank the many staff across all areas of council who engaged the community and took the time to hear and provide feedback.

There were three annual general meetings that I attended over the past month, including the North Ringwood Community House on the 24th of March. North Ringwood Community House is the only community house in Maroondah which is a registered training organisation and as a result they provide TAFE accredited Certificate III and IV training courses, in areas such as Aged Care, Palliative Care and Disability Services.

As I’ve reported previously, the priority for the house is to find a new location which will improve its accessibility and provide additional rooms to cater for increasing enrolments. The house recently submitted its grant application for feasibility study funding through the Department of Planning and Community Development.

The following day on the 25th of March I attended the annual general meeting for Central Ringwood Community House based in Bedford Park in Ringwood. Central Ringwood Community House provides an emphasis on computer training courses, as well as educational services to migrant communities and many other areas of interest for our community. The house is continuing to experience ongoing growth and has plans to improve accessibility and provide additional classroom facilities.

The Maroondah Citizens Advice Bureau AGM was held on the 1st of April and provided an opportunity for its membership to meet their new office manager and report on the ongoing growth in their emergency food relief. The guest speaker for the meeting was from the Primary Care Partnerships who spoke about food security and the difficulties some households are experiencing in purchasing fresh and nutritious food.

On the 4th of April I attended the launch of the Ringwood Bowls Club Water Reclamation Facility. The project provides three water tanks and a water retention system collecting water from the roof, adjacent roadways, the car park and their greens resulting in a capacity of 280,000 litres. It is estimated that the facility will conserve 1.5 million litres providing significant water savings. This project was the culmination of cooperation between all levels of government, Federal, State and Local, which included a grant from Council’s Water Sustainability Fund.

Lastly, Eastern Volunteers have organised a conference for the 13th and 14th of May exploring volunteer, social inclusion and community wellbeing. For details, including registration and the conference program, please visit their website at www.easternvolunteers.org.au.

Peak Oil, Petrol Prices and Climate Change Conference

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Peak Oil and the impacts of climate change have risen in prominence this week with both the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) and a coalition of community groups led by the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) organising conferences on these issues.

I attended the Peak Oil, Petrol Prices and Climate Change conference which was organised by the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA), Environment Victoria and the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) and held at the DOI Theatrette at Nauru House.

Peak Oil, whereby the supply of oil is unable to meet demand, was first theorised by Marion King Hubbert in 1956. Despite the constant crticisms throughout the reminder of Hubbert’s career, he successfully predicted the peaking of US domestic oil supplies. On a world-wide scale peak oil it is predicted that peak oil will occur somewhere between 2010 and 2020, the exact figure being difficult to determine due to the uncertainty surrounding the actual level of oil reserves within the Middle East.

The conference attracted prominent speakers such as Professor Peter Newman, one of Australia’s leading urban transport academics, Dr. Jago Dodson, who investigated the vulnerability of Australia’s cities in responding to rising petrol prices and Dr. Ian McPhail the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, who recently highlighted the State Government’s poor performance in regard to public transport and land use planning.

Areas of vulnerability to petrol prices within Melbourne

Areas of oil vulnerability within Melbourne (darker areas represent a higher vulnerability to rising petrol prices)

Regardless of the actual date of peak oil, it is clear that petrol prices are continuing to rise due to the demand for oil from countries such as India and China. Rising petrol prices place an increased financial burden on car dependent households, such as those located in Melbourne’s outer suburbs. These suburbs are dependent on car travel largely due to State Government neglect in providing fast, frequent and readily available public transport.

While Maroondah Council’s 2007/2008 Budget approved the hiring of a new full-time Transport and Sustainability Officer and the recently adopted Pedestrian Strategy will assist in focusing council on improving and increasing the level of walking within the municipality, we are still lacking any clear leadership from the State Government towards improving public transport.

The Third Future of Local Government Summit

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Over the past two days I attended the third Future of Local Government Summit. This summit is designed to ensure best practice within local government in the areas of resource management, sustainability and governance.

Last year’s summit identified eight key principles including:

  1. Our time has come: embrace reform
  2. Speak with one voice
  3. Re-think what we do/how we do it
  4. Achieve outcomes in shared services/ economies of scale
  5. Measure ourselves
  6. Really listen to the community
  7. Deliver on local priorities
  8. Involve all levels of government in the process of change.

The goal of this year’s summit is to develop a roadmap to assist local government in delivering upon the eight principles. In this regard a number of case studies were presented which examined community planning, resource sharing and the roles of local government within other countries such as the New Zealand and the UK.

There is an increasing trend amongst councils to share resources to ensure efficiencies of share and consistent information across the sector. Waste services, IT and human resources are also examples of areas that have seen an increase in council collaboration.

With continuous pressures such as cost-shifting it is imperative that councils stand united to ensure efficient and well resourced local government sector.

Victorian Transport Infrastructure Summit 2007

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Through the Public Transport Users Association, I have been invited to speak at the 2007 Victorian Transport Infrastructure Summit on issues relating to Melbourne’s public transport infrastructure.

I will be part of a panel consisting of Yarra Trams, Metlink, the Public Transport Ombudsman and Melbourne University academic Paul Mees.

Topics that will be covered include options for managing transport congestion, network improvements operational practices and investment strategies. These issues are extremely topical to Melbourne given rising patronage, diminishing reliability, the need for overall coordination and a Government reluctance to invest in new public transport infrastructure.

Conference Details:

Rail Infrastructure Conference 2007

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As the Vice-President of the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA), I have been invited to speak at the 2007 Rail Infrastructure Conference to provide a users perspective of the success factors required for rail based public transport.

After decades of neglect, states around Australia are reinvesting heavily in rail and public transport due to economic, social and environmental benefits of sustainable transport. Unfortunately, Victoria is lagging behind the rest of the country since no new rail extensions are planned for at least 15 years.

This conference provides the opportunity to further advance the debate around the infrastructure needs of not just our urban cities but for the whole of Australia.

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International Cities, Town Centres and Communities (ICTC) Conference

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The International Cities, Town Centres and Communities (ICTC) is an annual conference which explores the revitalisation of town centres and main streets. This year’s event was held in Newcastle, a town that has experienced firsthand the revitalisation of its foreshore regions and its central business district.

The development patterns and urban form prevalent since the 1960s is unsustainable and ‘big box’ shopping centres while long regarded as an anchor for suburban retail expenditure are a detriment to creating liveable and vibrant suburbs. Through an urban design movement known as ‘new urbanism’ there is a push to revitalise traditional ‘main street’ shopping districts to provide places for the community to shop, interact and provide a variety of entertainment and commercial possibilities.

A number of cities within the UK and the US are designating central commercial areas as ‘business improvement districts’ allowing the business community to take direct control over the streetscape and the improvement of the commercial retail mix. Within Australia a special rates scheme, such as the scheme provided within Main Street Croydon, provides the implementation of a similar concept.

The equivalent of ‘main street’ within Ringwood is Maroondah Highway, currently a six-lane road which splits Ringwood Station and the commercial and retail precincts into two. Maroondah Highway is its current form is a detriment to revitalising the centre of Ringwood and the State Government must ensure that Maroondah Highway is narrowed to at least four lanes once the Ringwood Bypass is completed. Pedestrians form the lifeblood of any commercial district and pedestrian amenity must be improved to transform Ringwood into a vibrant commercial and retail centre.

Among the topics covered there was a presentation by Ian Robson from the Public Transport Authority in Perth. Ian covered the success that Perth and the Western Australian government has had in achieving urban renewal through genuinely integrating transport with land use planning. The Perth equivalents of Melbourne’s ‘activity centres’, known as Transport Orientated Developments (TOD) provide true integration between the creation of vibrant suburban centres and the provision of improved public transport infrastructure of services. Unlike the increasingly flawed process of Melbourne 2030, the Perth Metropolitan Strategy provided more than just rhetoric but a detailed implementation plan that has seen the establishment of new rail lines and improved bus services.

Community engagement is seen as critical and this was covered in both a local and statewide context. Thorough and genuine community engagement is required to ensure the development of plans that are acceptable and beneficial for the wider community and this ongoing engagement must be strengthened as we strive towards creating sustainable development.

ICTC demonstrated that the return to pedestrian friendly vibrant centres is not only desirable but also possible if leadership is provided by relevant the governments and their agencies. The opportunity to transform Ringwood must not be lost.

For further details on the International Cities, Town Centres and Communities (ICTC) Society or on the conference please visit www.ictcsociety.org.

The Future of Local Government Conference

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Yesterday and today I attended the Future of Local Government Conference, an event organised by the MAV (Municipal Association of Victoria). The conference, which is in its second year, explores the relationship between local, state and federal governments as well as future governance and funding issues for local government.

Key issues facing local government include ever increasing cost shifting (particularly from the State Government) and the requirement to fund services from a limited income base. It is imperative that local government is treated as an equal peer among State and Federal governments to ensure that both cost shifting and wasteful duplication is minimised.

It is also imperative that local government, as the form of government closest to the community, actively engages its citizens to ensure that the general public is genuinely represented in decisions affecting the local community.

In this regard, a number of international examples from New Zealand, the US and the UK were provided to demonstrate the potential future of local government within Australia.

The collective strength of local government is seen in a number of areas, such as public transport advocacy through the Eastern Transport Coalition, and it is imperative that local government presents a strong and united voice is pushing for genuine and positive reform of Australia’s governance structures while ensuring that the community is directly engaged in the decision making process.