Councils in Cooperation: Shared Services and Australian Local Government by Bria

Councils in Cooperation by Brian Dollery, Michael Kortt, Bligh James Grant

Estimated delivery 3-12 business days

Format Paperback

Condition Brand New

Description Australian local government finds itself operating under conditions of acute financial austerity, manifested most plainly in a burgeoning infrastructure backlog. This title explores and assesses the potential of resource sharing, shared services and other forms of inter-council cooperation in the Australian local government sector.

Publisher Description

Australian local government finds itself operating under conditions of acute financial austerity, manifested most plainly in a burgeoning infrastructure backlog. Various policy measures have been adopted to relieve this financial distress, most notably recent structural reform programs centred on forced council amalgamation. However, compulsory consolidation has not only failed to achieve its intended aims, but it has also served to diminish 'local voice' and 'local choice' and left a lasting legacy of bitterness and division.By contrast, as an alternative method of reaping the benefits of scale, scope, specialisation and size in local government service provision, but without all the deleterious effects of forced council mergers, service shared services offer significant promise for local government. Councils in Cooperation is the first attempt to comprehensively explore and assess the potential of resource sharing, shared services and other forms of inter-council cooperation in the Australian local government sector.Drawing on the full weight of international and Australian literature, Councils in Cooperation evaluates the theoretical literature on shared services and advances a new conceptual framework for explaining the comparative performance of shared service programs in practice. The authors consider alternative models of shared service provision and investigate the relative merits of these models. The book then systematically assesses the global empirical evidence on shared services and explores successful – and failed – attempts at shared services in the Australian milieu, providing various case studies of Regional Organisations of Councils, Strategic Alliances as well as vertical and horizontal shared service arrangements in contexts as varied as Greater Western Sydney, the NSW Central Tablelands and Riverina, and Outback Queensland.The policy implications arising from this wealth of material are examined in depth in Councils in Cooperation. The authors present a cogent case for policy makers to encourage local authorities to pursue shared service arrangements in selected areas of policy provision so as to reap the benefits which can flow from larger scale and greater specialisation, rather than rely on the heavy-handed and blunt instrument of forced amalgamation. Moreover, heightened cooperation between councils may well foster a 'bottom-up' revival of regional development with much better prospects for success than the current pattern of 'top-down' regionalism simply imposed on regional communities by national and state governments.Brian Dollery in the News - 30 April 2013, SMH. Read full article...736

Author Biography

Brian DolleryBrian Dollery is Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for Local Government at the University of New England. He has previously held academic positions at the University of South Africa, Rhodes University, and the University of Cape Town in the Republic of South Africa, East Carolina State University and Creighton University in the United States, and Yokohama National University in Japan.Brian has published extensively on the theoretical aspects of local government economics, finance and structure, as well as Australian local government. Co-authored and co-edited books include Australian Local Government: Reform and Renewal (with Neil Marshall, 1997); The Political Economy of Local Government (with Joe Wallis, 2001); Reshaping Australian Local Government: Finance, Governance and Reform (with Neil Marshall and Andrew Worthington, 2003); Australian Local Government Economics (with Lin Crase and Andrew Johnson, 2005) and Reform and Leadership in the Public Sector: A Political Economy Approach (with Joe Wallis and Linda McLoughlin, 2007). Both Australian Local Government: Reform and Renewal and Reshaping Australian Local Government: Finance, Governance and Reform have been translated into MandarinBligh GrantBligh Grant is Research Lecturer in Local Government Studies and Deputy Director of the UNE Centre for Local Government. He holds a BA (Hons) in Politics from the University of New England and recently submitted his doctoral dissertation in Local Government Studies.Mr Grant is a former Associate Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba and has held several research-only appointments at UNE over several years in a variety of fields.He has published broadly in Australian politics and political economy, including the edited collection Pauline Hanson, One Nation and Australian Politics, (1997) and in local government studies in particular.Michael KorttMichael Kortt is Senior Lecturer in Applied Economics at Southern Cross University (SCU). He holds a PhD in economics from the University of New England, an MS from the University of Arizona, and an honours degree in economics from La Trobe University.Prior to joining SCU, Michael spent 10 years working in the government sector as a research manager for the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and the Department of Health and Ageing.His principal research interest is in the field of local government economics.

Details ISBN 1862878471 ISBN-13 9781862878471 Title Councils in Cooperation Author Brian Dollery, Michael Kortt, Bligh James Grant Format Paperback Year 2012 Pages 288 Publisher Federation Press GE_Item_ID:82331701; About Us

Grand Eagle Retail is the ideal place for all your shopping needs! With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and over 1,000,000 in stock items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love!

Shipping & Delivery Times

Shipping is FREE to any address in USA.

Please view eBay estimated delivery times at the top of the listing. Deliveries are made by either USPS or Courier. We are unable to deliver faster than stated.

International deliveries will take 1-6 weeks.

NOTE: We are unable to offer combined shipping for multiple items purchased. This is because our items are shipped from different locations.

Returns

If you wish to return an item, please consult our Returns Policy as below:

Please contact Customer Services and request "Return Authorisation" before you send your item back to us. Unauthorised returns will not be accepted.

Returns must be postmarked within 4 business days of authorisation and must be in resellable condition.

Returns are shipped at the customer's risk. We cannot take responsibility for items which are lost or damaged in transit.

For purchases where a shipping charge was paid, there will be no refund of the original shipping charge.

Additional Questions

If you have any questions please feel free to Contact Us.

Categories Baby Books Electronics Fashion Games Health & Beauty Home, Garden & Pets Movies Music Sports & Outdoors Toys