Graham Sansom, professor and director of the UTS Centre for Local Government and Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government, discusses local government relations with their state and federal counterparts in this two-page article from Local Government Manager, the magazine of Local Government Managers Australia. Sansom bemoans the lack of a two-way relationship between local and federal government in Australia, arguing that the status quo consists almost entirely of an exchange of funds and stimulus from the latter to the former. Money, he argues, is good but not enough if local governments are ever going to truly become a part of the national policy dialogue and avoid being seen as dependents always looking for a federal handout. The second half of this article lists Australian-specific recommendations for improving that relationship, but it may serve as food for thought for many U.S. and international-based local managers pondering their own relationships with state and federal governments.

2 Pages