Table of Contents
The challenge for reform of regional governance within the Australian federal system, facing all of Australia, is especially sharpened in coastal communities. In these communities, increasing social, economic and environmental pressures associated with unprecedented levels of population growth and increasing levels of international and domestic tourism, all make the policy and service demands on government and communities particularly pressing and complex (NSCT 2006). The movement of people to the coast is a national issue impacting on coastal communities in every Australian State and Territory, and it is gathering pace.
Based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data, it is estimated that Australian coastal areas outside the major metropolitan areas of Australia’s capital cities support more than 5.5 million people (NSCT 2006). In other words, 75% of Australia’s non-metropolitan population is living in coastal areas. Moreover, these areas also continue to experience the most prominent growth in population (ABS 2007). This rapid population growth coupled with growth in tourism is impacting significantly on existing coastal communities through a variety of complex social, economic and environmental issues (Salt 2004; Burnley and Murphy 2004; Gurran et al 2005, 2006; Smith and Doherty 2006). These include:
increasing demand for infrastructure, community facilities, public transport and human services;
impacts of coastal development on the environment;
social and economic impacts on the identity and character of coastal communities;
difficulty of establishing a sustainable economic base for local communities;
housing affordability; and
lack of, and difficulty in attracting, human and financial resources to deal with emerging issues.
These issues brought together the CEOs of 27 high-growth coastal councils in February 2004, to a ‘Sea Change Summit’ to talk about the common problems they faced in relation to rapid growth in coastal areas. As an outcome of this meeting, the National Sea Change Taskforce (NSCT) was formally constituted at a meeting in Canberra in November 2004, involving more than 60 participating councils. It is still a very young organisation. The issues that brought the Councils together are all related to the impact of high growth rates on coastal communities, but it was evident that the dysfunctional system of governance that we currently have for coastal regions was central to the problem. More than a decade ago, the Resource Assessment Commission’s (RAC) Coastal Zone Inquiry report identified major resource management problems in the coastal zone and the need for a national approach to improve management arrangements and meet these challenges (RAC 1993).
The NSCT believes there is an urgent need for a national response to rapid coastal development (NSCT 2006). It advocates a national policy framework and governance structure capable of delivering a triple bottom line outcome for coastal communities. Significantly, the local government sector is driving the NSCT agenda – not the State/Territory and Australian governments. The reason for this is twofold: first, in the face of the confused jurisdictional issues involved, there is a lack of political will, at both State/Territory and Australian Government levels, to deal effectively with coastal issues; and secondly, it is local governments, mostly small ones, that are confronted directly with the consequences of these issues on a daily basis.
This chapter examines these issues for coastal communities in the context of the disjointed nature of the current federal, state and local system of governance. It highlights the complex impacts of high growth rates on coastal communities, and the critical role of local government, and it explores some priorities for a more responsive federal-regional-local system of governance that embodies participatory democracy principles.