Cobar Mayor Jarrod Marsden joined more than 1,100 local government leaders from across Australia at the 2026 Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) national conference in Canberra last week.
“I really get a lot out of this conference as all 538 councils from right across Australia come and we debated over 240 motions.
“To me it represents the conscience of Australia and provides real insight into what the nation is thinking,” Mayor Marsden said.
“We often get a bit bogged down in our regional NSW bubble on a week-to-week basis and forget we are part of a bigger nation wide machine.”
A key focus of this year’s conference was the sector’s united advocacy for fairer Financial Assistance Grants.
Delegates reinforced that sustainable, untied federal funding is essential if councils are to continue delivering the infrastructure, services and local solutions their communities need.
“Last year a lot of motions that called for extra funds to be sent to the country councils were voted down by the city councils.
“This year they all got voted up,” he said.
“The opportunity to interact and network with other councils is very, very important.
“Mayors and general managers building relationships and sharing stories and experiences across the board often has long term positive benefits that many don’t appreciate.”
Mayor Marsden also attended a health forum in Canberra last week which was driven by the more remote councils who are rated MMN 6 or 7.
(MMN, Monash Model Number, is used by the Australian Government to define whether a location is metropolitan, rural, remote or very remote and its population size. MM 1 is a major city and MM 7 is very remote. The MM classifications aim to help the government distribute the health workforce better. Cobar is MM 6.)
“This forum concentrated on the attraction and retention of doctors and the role councils are playing in providing direct funding, housing, cars, medical centres etc to incentivise doctors to come and practice in the bush.
“And the reality is we are providing a lot!
“The outcome was to petition the federal government to alter the medical component of the Financial Assistance Grants formula to provide higher funding for MMN 6 and 7 councils,” Mayor Marsden said.
