Death by a Thousand Grants? The Challenge of Grant Funding Reliance for Local Government Councils in the Northern Territory of Australia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6301689 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Thomas Michel (0000-0002-8242-2674, Charles Darwin University), A E Taylor (0000-0002-2496-6075), Andrew Taylor (0000-0002-3677-3270, Charles Darwin University) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 485-500 |
| Publication date | 2012-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Local Government Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0300-3930 • E-ISSN: 1743-9388 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03003930.2012.666212 |
| OpenAlex | W2070112014 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 10 |
In July 2008, the local government sector in the Northern Territory of Australia underwent wide-sweeping reforms whereby 53 councils, most of which were located in remote Indigenous communities, were amalgamated into eight regional shires. The dominant justifications for these reforms focused on internal 'deficit' views about the community council sector, including lack of competent and ethical staff, managerial workforce instability, inefficient use of resources, and poor oversight as the primary causes of chronic underperformance and dysfunction. This paper identifies and discusses the under-scrutinised role of grants revenue dependency and volatility in the demise of remote small councils in the Northern Territory. We analyse financial data to demonstrate the extreme volatility in year-on-year grants funding. With their high dependency on grants revenue, such volatility and unpredictability resulted in councils being hamstrung in their ability to strategically plan and ensure stability in service delivery, infrastructure management and employment provision. We argue that these fiscal dynamics, fuelled by hierarchical intergovernmental relations, contributed significantly to dysfunction in the sector, as well as mutually reinforcing pre-existing structural and endogenous weaknesses. This argument runs against the common conceptualisation of the sector as requiring of externally imposed structural reform. We conclude by suggesting that there are factors additional to scale that need to be incorporated into analysis of the effects of amalgamation policies on remote councils. Key Words: Grants revenue volatilityrural and remote populationsNorthern Territory of Australiacouncil amalgamationsindigenous communities Notes One exception was Katherine Town Council, which had its boundaries significantly enlarged during the process
Business · Economic growth · Economic policy · Economics · Local government · Political science · Revenue · Workforce · Community Development and Social Impact · Irish and British Studies · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Public Administration · Accounting · Finance
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,44 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2023 (7) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |