With LGAQ CEO Greg Hallam AM and LGAQ General Manager Assist, Glen Beckett
LGAQ CEO Greg Hallam AM:
It is fair to say there have been mixed feelings across Queensland’s 77 councils following the announcement of how the State Government would be distributing its special $200m COVID-19 Works for Queensland package.
The LGAQ believes any day when councils receive in aggregate an additional $200 million is a good day, but we equally understand the concerns of SEQ councils.
As we go to print, further discussions between the State Government and SEQ councils are under way.
This pandemic has hit every community across this state hard so every community should benefit from critical economic stimulus funding.
We took up the fight to secure the $200 million and we will continue to advocate on behalf of all Queensland councils for further funding to flow in the coming tranches, as promised by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
This advocacy is a critical service provided by the LGAQ to its members. But it is not the only benefit of being part of your association.
The LGAQ’s General Manager, Assist, Glen Beckett has responsibility for member support and engagement. Below he explains some of other critical member services we provide.
LGAQ General Manager, Assist - Glenn Beckett:
Over the previous term of local government, the LGAQ could put its hand on its heart and point to $2 billion in benefits for members across the state.
Indeed, we sent all 578 elected members highlights of some of those wins with your LGAQ welcome pack.
What is less obvious are the thousands of phone calls and emails seeking support that the LGAQ receives and responds to from members both large and small every week.
All up, we have a team of ten dedicated front-line staff who cover off on industrial relations, human resource management, disaster management, local government finance and administration, regulatory functions as well as helpdesk support for a number of online and digital services.
Many of the newer elected member brigade would be unaware that the LGAQ also provides, under a fair use model, free legal opinions for matters that are likely to be of common concern to many members.
A rolling compendium of all those legal opinions is kept on our secure members portal - LG Online - as a ready reckoner for council staff.
LG Online is also where you can find other valuable tools such as our Legislative Compliance Service, the Ready.Set.Go. council benchmarking service and LG Sherlock with its big data and artificial intelligence cost-saving tools covering a growing list of areas such as energy, plant and fleet, mobile phones and waste. And soon, Our Town, a clever new online, natural language driven community insights tool.
Furthermore, there are emerging savings and new insights being generated by our wholly owned subsidiary Peak Services who are working with a growing number of councils to unlock value through their smart featured, one-stop procurement portal - Local Buy Next Gen.
And finally our now 25-year-old LGMS insurance and workers compensation schemes, which independent studies have shown have realised accumulated savings of three quarters of a billion dollars over the life of the schemes.
The cherry on the top is the LGAQ, annually, in aggregate, returns to councils more in special dividends than members pay us in subscriptions.
All up, we continue to unlock tangible value for members in all that we do.
