BULLETIN

• Kinder campaign: The MAV has written to Federal Senators, party leaders, the Minister and Shadow Minister about our campaign to secure long-term Federal funding to deliver 15 hours a week of kindergarten. Council and community advocacy remains vital in these critical months leading up to the 2017 Federal Budget. Councils are encouraged to write to Federal Leaders and their local Federal MP to urge them to support funding being allocated in the Federal Budget. The MAV has developed a template letter for mayors to assist.

• Fire season: The Fire Danger Period comes to an end in the Knox, Manningham, Maroondah and Yarra Ranges council areas (those portions not included in the Metropolitan Fire District) at 1am on 20 March.

Over the weekend, the State Government released its metropolitan planning strategy Plan Melbourne 2017-2050.

The MAV is hosting a briefing with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) on 24 March from 10-11.30am. Inquiries about this briefing should be directed to Emlyn Breese. Please note that this briefing is for local government representatives only.

The MAV is currently preparing a Members Brief on Plan Melbourne, its implementation plan and ancillary documents, which will be circulated by the end of the week.

For more information, contact Michelle Croughan or Emlyn Breese.

On 10 March, amendments to the Education and Care Services National Law were announced which broadly aim to improve the National Quality Framework.

This follows a process of consultation through a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) to which MAV provided a submission, and the subsequent Decision RIS provided to the Education Council.

Some of the key changes include:

• Streamlining the assessment and rating process for education and care services by implementing a revised National Quality Standard
• Strengthening the National Law as it applies to family day care services to improve the quality of education and care provided to children through a range of measures
• Removing supervisor certificate requirements to reduce the compliance burden for education and care services.

The Bill also makes amendments to the Children's Services Act 1996 as a consequence of several of the amendments to the National Law.

Local government is a provider of high quality early years services, with approximately 90 per cent of council-delivered services receiving a rating of meeting or exceeding the NQS (May 2016 figure).

For further information, contact Wendy Allan.

More than 80 library, IT, and arts and culture representatives from councils around Victoria participated in the Library Management System Review and Design Workshop held in the Docklands last week.

Local Government Victoria is supporting the MAV in the state-wide procurement of a Library Management System through an EOI and tender process.

Last week’s workshop evaluated the current systems in place, and identified the qualities of a system that would provide maximum and long-term benefit to councils, public libraries, and community users well into the future.

Recommendations will be discussed later this week and will inform the MAV's next steps.

The MAV and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) are hosting a workshop to generate ‘blue sky’ ideas to inform the Smart Planning response for the growing complexity of Victoria’s planning system.

The workshop will be held from 10am-2.30pm on Wednesday 29 March at the Sheraton Hotel Melbourne. Registration for one elected and one officer representative for each council is available online.

Additional stakeholder workshops being hosted by DELWP in Melbourne include ‘transforming the planning scheme’ on 20 March, ‘a planning system that can create great places’ on 23 March and ‘a planning system which puts users at its centre’ on 27 March. A series of regional workshops are also currently planned for Paynesville, Geelong and Bendigo.

For more information, contact Michelle Croughan or Emlyn Breese.

• Age-Friendly Community Grants: Indigo Shire Council, Corangamite Shire Council, Mildura Rural City Council, Horsham Rural City Council, and Cooinda Village Inc have received $100,000 grants from this State Government program to help older Victorians live happier and healthier lives. The MAV will work closely with the funded councils to support their projects over the next two years. The MAV’s Positive Ageing Adviser, Jan Bruce, will also create opportunities for all councils to share the knowledge and learnings from the projects.

• Waste Education Grants: Councils can access additional funding and free training to boost their local waste education efforts: Improving Resource Recovery - supporting waste education through behaviour change projects targeting contamination and resource recovery; Love Food Hate Waste Local Engagement Support - supporting localised food waste avoidance activities; and Litter and Illegal Dumping - tackling illegal dumping in green space and littering in retail areas. To be kept up to date, or to register your interest in attending information seminars in receiving the grant guidelines and application forms, visit the Sustainability Victoria website.

• Preventing graffiti vandalism: Applications are now open for the State Government’s Graffiti Prevention Grants. Councils are invited to apply for grants of up to $25,000 to partner with community groups to deliver local graffiti prevention initiatives. Applications close 4pm on Friday 12 May and should be submitted online via the Community Crime Prevention website.