Many reasons to get a local government job
Local government is neither the most glamorous employment opportunity, nor are workers showered in money.
Only a small share (1.4 per cent) of all workers are employed in local government. It is therefore no surprise that it’s a somewhat forgotten career opportunity.
The role that local government plays in the broader system, however, is rather important and often under-estimated. Let’s have a closer look at the sector.
Running a big country like Australia is hard. To keep things manageable, we established three tiers of government. Partly we did this to distribute power, so no entity controls everything. Smart. Mostly though, certain responsibilities are best managed on the local level (waste management) while others are best delegated to the state (hospitals) or federal level (defence).
Historically it was very hard for federal and state governments in Australia to understand the needs of local areas as communications between different arms of government was painfully slow. Better to give the local authorities a bit more autonomy.
This means even today local governments in Australia hold more power than their international counterparts. As a result of the housing affordability crisis, the states are in the process of grabbing a few powers from local government as I described previously.
The goal is to minimise the number of development proposals shut down by local government. Even if states will go all in and force strict housing targets on local councils, local government will still retain a lot of power and influence.
There are 537 councils in Australia managing our local infrastructure, recreation facilities, health services, community services, planning........
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