Australia’s National Local Government Newspaper LGFocus.com.au
OCTOBER 2025
New Darwin Council sworn in Councillor Patrik Ralph, who has recently turned 22, is the youngest Deputy Lord Mayor and elected member in Darwin’s history and one of six councillors entering their first ever term.
The six – along with the other seven re-elected members, form the 24th Council elected to represent the Darwin for the 2025-2029 term. The 24th Council sees female represen-
tation across every ward and three elected members who identify as First Nation. The group, including Lord Mayor Peter Styles were officially inaugurated at Darwin’s Civic Centre in mid-September.
The new councillors of Darwin.
Funding is dire ALGA has stressed that future-proofing communities for changing climates was now a national priority following the Federal Government’s first National Climate Risk Assessment (NCRA) and National Adaptation Plan (NAP). The Council peak body’s president Mayor Matt Burnett said the assessment underscores the importance of supporting councils in protecting communities from the changing climate The NCRA outlined a sobering but important picture of the ways the changing climate is affecting Australia’s health systems, regional areas, infrastructure and the environment. The NCRA and the NAP also showed communities urgently need local adaptation action and solutions. ALGA’s latest research highlighted that Australia’s councils are already delivering more than $400 million per year in projects to prepare their communities for the changing climate needs, and will invest about $2 billion in adaptation over the next five years. “We welcome and are encouraged by the Government’s climate risk assessment that recognises local governments can play a key role in making communities and local infrastructure more sustainable and resilient,” Mayor Burnett said. “Future-proofing communities from the changing climate continues to be a national priority, and Australia’s councils are leading the way by investing heavily in climate resilience solutions. “Innovative councils are showing leader-
ship by planting trees to combat heat, providing community education for bushfires, coastal hazard management systems and upgrading stormwater systems and flood resilience programs. “However climate-resilient infrastructure is expensive and takes time to build, so we need sustainable funding from the Government to implement long-term planning and adaptation now and into the future. “We are calling for a new $400 million per year climate adaptation fund, to be distributed across all councils to provide local, place-based solutions to Australia’s changing climate. Mayor Burnett said many councils are facing significant financial sustainability challenges, and we urgently need the Government to recommence the federal inquiry into local government sustainability. “We are also calling for a return to one per cent of Commonwealth taxation revenue for local government over three years.” The Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action also spoke out in response to the NCRA and have also called for more support for Local Governments in the face of the changing climate and increased risks. BSCA have urged the Albanese Government
to set 2035 climate targets strong enough to save lives, and to fund the vast costs of climate adaptation by making coal and gas corporations pay a climate pollution levy. The NCRA reports that on the current trajectory of emissions reduction the world will reach 2.7 degrees of warming by 2100. While climate change is already impacting Australians, the future impacts of climate change will be cascading, compounding and concurrent. The report shows that communities - particularly in the regions, outer suburbs and in northern Australia - will be impacted heavily in many ways (health, homes, insurance and infrastructure) and that climate change will disrupt our very way of life. Dangerous fire weather days are projected to continue to become more frequent in southern and eastern areas parts of the country, with a longer fire season and the potential for more megafires. Bushfires were identified as key risks across all seven of the country’s ‘key systems’ including communities, defense and national security, economy, health and social support, infrastructure, primary industries (including food) and the natural environment. “We greet this report with a mix of emotions: dread, relief and optimism. The report findings lay out in shocking black and white what our members know in their hearts from their own
bitter experience - that catastrophic climate change is unfolding now and will get much worse in the years to come.” said Serena Joyner, Chief Executive Officer of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action. “However we are also relieved that Australia can now have an honest conversation about the very real costs and consequences that climate change is bringing to this country. And with that comes optimism that we have the information and the opportunity to act quickly to lessen the worst impacts, and to dramatically increase funding to communities now to be better prepared for extreme weather and unnatural disasters.” Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, a nonpartisan, community organisation made up of bushfire survivors, firefighters and their families working together to call on leaders to take action on climate change, is part of an alliance calling on the Albanese Government to help pay the escalating damage bill faced by communities in Australia and neighbouring Pacific, by placing a climate pollution levy on coal and gas corporations. The alliance makes the case for raising up to $46 billion annually to fund essential local government and community-led climate adaptation investment across Australia and the Pacific.