During October, the Local Government News Roundup presents a series of special programs focussing on current issues of relevance to the local government sector. Regular Roundup news updates will return in early November.
Today’s topic is changing public perceptions of local government.
With many councils attracting attention and sometimes criticism for their involvement in social and political issues, a team of researchers is attempting to understand how Australians see the role of local government; and how that compares to the more traditional view that councils should stick to roads, rates and rubbish.
Associate Professor Mark Chou is part of a team from the Australian Catholic University’s Research Centre for Social and Political Change which is conducting broad reaching research into attitudes towards local government by ordinary Australians, as well as those who are involved in the local government sector.
You can access the survey via this link.
Listen to this episode here, or access all 166 episodes to date on your preferred podcast players from this link.
Hi Chris, really good to see this research being undertaken. Australian academia rarely gives local government the attention it deserves and the question of councils becoming more activist is one I have closely engaged with in the housing space. Just to also let you know that the link to the research doesn’t seem to be working.
Hi Mike. Thanks for the feedback, and apologies about the broken link. It should be working now from this page.