From Roads, Rubbish To Social Change

Newcastle Herald

Thursday March 31, 2005

By DONNA SHARPE Maitland Reporter

NEWCASTLE City Council general manager Janet Dore told a gathering of about 50 women yesterday that local government had gone beyond roads, rates and rubbish to embrace social change.

Ms Dore, addressing the crowd at the Women's Network luncheon held in Mansfield, said that councils' functions until the 1970s were roads, rates and rubbish.

But over the past 30 years it had changed to include social planning and community development, she said.

Ms Dore said that Newcastle City Council provided ratepayers with 150 different services, costing the average ratepayer $15 a week.

"Local government is now the business of community building," she said.

But she said councils were increasingly spending money on "declining social capital".

"Vandalism is unfortunately a fact of life in Newcastle we spent $1 million a year to repair damage to public facilities, including graffiti removal."

Councils were also under pressure to provide child care, particularly for the "less profitable" early years, she said. "This demand, ironically, is a consequence of flexible working arrangements and equal opportunity legislation," she said.

The luncheon's organiser, Maitland councillor Vicki Woods, said Ms Dore's talk was also focused on the importance of trying to get more women involved in community groups and on boards.

© 2005 Newcastle Herald

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