"Corruption chips away at democracy to produce a vicious cycle, where corruption undermines democratic institutions and, in turn, weak institutions are less able to control corruption" Patricia Moreira, Managing Director, Transparency International (2019). Disappointingly, Australia is o

All of us involved in scrutinizing governance performance of councils understand the common and growing issues. However, there is lack of an official national perspective of the common governance issues prevailing in Australia councils. The states and territories' reform plans and priorities, the r

Equal participation in decision making is the highest empowerment of local democracy. This was VLGA’s legacy value to its members, until last week when majority to AGM attendees voted last week to pass a constitution change that demotes individual members to become associate members and losing the

Yesterday, Communications Alliance, a telco peak body has revealed that the 2015 legislated Metadata Act can be exercised without a warrant by any agencies, not just by the act’s authorized list of “criminal law-enforcement agencies”. This means that any state and federal departments and agenc

24 community groups have gathered at the WA Parliament to rally against what they believe is a skewed planning system. Civil actions like making phone calls and writing letters expressing their views are no longer working. Local Development Assessment Panel (LDAP) meetings are normalizing “confron

Read this ABC news article (5 Nov 2018) - "China is changing our cities — but it's not as simple as an 'invasion' or a 'takeover' ". It is an eye opener when the article alerted that: The racialised talk of "Asian invasion" blames Chinese migrants and investors for many local liveability

On 6 October 2018, we had our Annual General Meeting. The governance and operating teams' membership remains unchanged. Click here for the Annual Report 2017/18.

“Good culture and proper governance cannot be implemented by passing a law. Culture and governance are affected by rules, systems and practices but in the end,  they depend upon people applying the right standards and doing their jobs properly”.       &nbs

Public notice that the annual general meeting will be hosted on 6th October 2018. Venue: Level 8, Room 9, 445 Swanston St, Melbourne Time: 10:30 to 11:30 am Agenda Items Meeting Opening Annual Report, including Treasurer's Report Nomination of Governance (Association) Positions: President

In Jan 2018, China made the decision to stop accepting and hence importing scarp metal, plastic, paper and chemical waste from foreign countries. In 2015, China imported over 47 million tons of waste (Radio Free Asia, 2018). In the wake of the ban, most developed nations, including the USA, Britain

Welcome to Ratepayers Australia. Interested in improving good governance functioning and leadership in your council? If yes, this site is for you. We collaborate with: Ratepayers and residents; State and federal agencies who oversee Australian states' and territories' local government po