A word from Brent, our Managing Director and CEO
One of the key challenges confounding local governments, and the sector more broadly, is service delivery and the lack of available resources and having adequate budgets to attract the right people to the right roles. Our team is looking closely at this to see how we can ramp up to support councils to provide continuity and manage our workforces effectively.
How does the change in government impact the next three years and how can we leverage this for improved outcomes? With a focus on 'every community deserves to be a liveable one', Councils are expected to perform more than just basic service functions and with significant pressures around attraction and retention, we need to come together and collaborate to find solutions. This problem is not going away anytime soon, the infrastructure pipeline is not just impacting Queensland, it goes well beyond Australia. Typically, where we have sought skilled and technical resources internationally in the past, those countries are also experiencing infrastructure booms.
So, the question I pose is, do we need to look at more collaborative models in local government?
Big question, I know. But one that should be reflected on and then what does this look like to be effective, save money or repurpose funds into other priority areas such as addressing housing shortfalls or youth unemployment, or even investing in our future workforce with an uplift in graduate, cadet, and traineeship programs - basically anything that can be delivered locally.
A different way of delivering services and maximising councils' resources is considering (particularly with smaller and remote councils), is there another way to do this? With more and more of our councils struggling with long term financial sustainability to provide for liveable communities, let's face it, our communities expect us to do more, but with what? There isn't a whole lot of extra funding floating around, if anything this is likely to contract. Is it time we started identifying those roles that could be delivered remotely or perhaps under a different model?
An example of this is the Resources Agreement we have with Norfolk Island Regional Council. Hard to fill positions are being resourced from our office in Newstead as part of a collaborative services hub. These roles include functions such as Finance, Procurement, Governance, WHS, HR, IT and Communications, and not only is council building capacity and capability internally, but they are also generating substantial savings.
“Council savings include recruitment costs, relocation costs, flights, the removal of constant turnover (less than 12 months tenure), loss of Council content (continuity), but most importantly, attracting a talent pool that would not otherwise be interested in relocating to a remote location. The benefits we receive by enticing qualified & experienced staff compared to only receiving those people that are interested in working on a remote island, to eventually get there, and find out it’s not all that great!” Andrew Roach General Manager, Norfolk Island Regional Council.
Our team at Peak has significant experience in embedding these types of service delivery models, it is in our DNA and at the core of why we exist – we are here to solve problems. Through working collaboratively with the sector and understanding the challenges impacting our workforce, we are focused on finding solutions that are outcome driven and best meet the needs of local government. This is certainly about maintaining as much as possible locally, building capacity more broadly, and working towards a sustainable model for the future. I feel there’s definitely a need for more of a conversation as a sector around this.
On a lighter note, we are about to kick off on the 2022 Long Drive for Drought. Starting in my old hometown Calliope on the 26 August, the convoy heads out to central western Queensland through communities such as Duaringa, Clermont, Muttaburra out to Winton, Boulia, Cloncurry and back down to Longreach via Kynuna. It will be a big eight days and working closely with the councils we are looking forward to connecting with the communities along the way, raising awareness of this great cause – believe it or not despite the rainfall we have had there are still many farming communities doing it tough.
Between drought, floods, fires, mouse plagues, Covid-19 and now the potential threat of Foot and Mouth disease, the struggles for our farming communities are real and every little bit of our $100k goal this year will be used to support those in need.
Thanks to our generous sponsors and participants we will have raised over $70k of our target before we head off. That’s an incredible feat given in our first year our goal was to raise $40k. We certainly could not achieve this without our major sponsors and partners who are back again after last year, including our own Peak Services, Outback Queensland Tourism Association, Telstra, Hastings Deering, Toyota Fleet Management and Queensland Rugby League (very excited to have a 2022 Game 1 signed and authenticated jersey for our major raffle, probably one of the most iconic and memorable series I have ever watched, that and being a winning series makes it all that much sweeter).
We also welcome new major sponsors this year including Ergon Energy, Blooms Chemist Kingaroy, Diesel Services Queensland and CWQ (Central West Queensland Brewing Company, an initiative of the RAPAD group of councils and yes you guessed it, our Hydration Partner).
Without these incredible, socially responsible organisations onboard, we would not be able to get on the road and achieve this fundraising goal for our charity partner, Drought Angels.
Lastly, a reminder that our Butch Lenton Memorial Award nominations close on the 31st August. For those that attended the recent Bush Council Convention in Barcaldine, you would recall the presentations from both South Burnett and Goondiwindi Regional Council’s and how this award and the $10,000 bursary that goes along with it had such a meaningful impact on their communities.
See you out there
Brent