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Email: mailbox@jlgc.org.auIssue No. 55 / September 2012

CLAIR Forum 2012
“Improving Local Government Efficiency and Performance: Recent experiences in Australia and Japan”
The 2012 CLAIR Forum was held on 17th August at
the UTS Centre for Local Government in Sydney.
This year’s forum was a collaboration of CLAIR(CouncilofLocal

Authorities

forInternationalRelations), ACELG (Australian Centre of Excellencefor Local Government) and OSIPP (Osaka School ofInternational Public Policy).
“Improvinglocal

This year’s theme wasgovernment

efficiency

andperformance: recent experiences in Australia andJapan”, and was conducted over two sessions.
Around 70 people participated in the afternoon session facilitated by Professor Graham Sansom, Director of UTS
Centre for Local Government; while around 40 people participated in the researcher’s session beforehand. The
researcher’s session was facilitated by Professor Nobuo Akai, from OSIPP, and Ms Sarah Artist, Assistant Directorof UTS Centre for Local Government. The forum began with welcome speeches from Professor Graham Sansomand Mr Yasuhiko Tanabe, Director of CLAIR Sydney, followed by opening speeches from Dr Masahiro Kohara,
Consul General of Japan in Sydney, and Professor Attila Brungs, Deputy Vice Chancellor of UTS.
After the opening speeches, Mr Yasuhiko Tanabe gave a brief presentation comparing
the structure of Japanese local governments to their counterparts in Australia.

Hispresentation served as a supplement to Professor Akai’s key note speech.
The topic for the first keynote address was “Explaining Jigyou
Shiwake: the Japanese Approach to Local Government Policyand Program Review”, delivered by Professor Akai from OSIPP. His address was basedon his experience as a member of the Jigyou Shiwake evaluation committee.

Heemphasized that with the use of Jigyou Shiwake, not only will local government employees
or officers become more conscious about the impact of their role and responsibilities, but
residents will also become more aware of issues in relation to efficiency.
The topic for the second keynote address was “The NSW Promoting Better Practice
Program”, delivered by Ms Corin Moffatt, Manager of Innovation and Development, NSW
Division of Local Government. Ms Moffatt also has international experience, having spentover 10 years working in the UK and learning about ways to promote better practice.
address showed us methods of improving and strengthening local government policy.

HerTwo case studies followed the key note speeches.
Ms Kylie Cantwell, Organisational Development manager for Hobart City Council,
discussed “The Improvement Journey at Hobart City Council”.

This case study

focused on Hobart’s business excellence, strategy, and planning.
The second case study, “Performance Reporting by Local
Government”, was provided by Mr Steven Vlahos, Director of Local
Government Performance Auditing in the Victorian Auditor General’s Office, who spoke about
his findings and recommendations from his 2012 report.
After the case studies, Professor Akai, Ms Moffatt,
Ms Cantwell, and Mr Vlahos joined Professor Sansom in a panel discussion
and shared their expertise. In the beginning of this panel discussion, Ms
Artist summarized the researcher’s session which was held in the morning.
Her summary helped deepen the audience’s understanding of the theme inpreparation for the panel discussion.
We had five very interesting presentations in the researcher’s session:
1.

Mr Dale Quinlivan, Executive Officer, City of Perth, “A Local Government Assurance Model: A PhD Study
focusing on efficiency, effectiveness and sustainable and sustainability objectives”

2.

Dr Haruaki Hirota, Associate Professor, Nagoya University for Commerce and Business, “Local Government
Expenditure and Council Size: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Japan made his speech about Local
Government Expenditure and Council Size”

3.

Mr Bligh Grant, Deputy Director of UNE Centre for Local Government, “Strategic Alliances of Councils: Twocase studies of Strategic Alliances arising from the threat of compulsory amalgamation in NSW, Australia”

4.

Dr Hideo Yunoue, Associate Professor, Chiba University of Commerce, “Spatial Patterns of Flypaper Effects
for Local Expenditures by Policy Objective in Japan: A Bayesian Approach”

5.

Mr Mick Grey, Project Manager, SmartGov, “Australian Local Government
service delivery reviews undertaken in 11 councils across Australia”

After Ms Artist’s summary, the panel discussion gave the audience an opportunity
to raise many questions and it was very informative for all.

The forum ended with some closing
remarks from Professor Sansom, bringing the successful event to an end.
Professor Sansom noted that although local communities differ in termsof their specific challenges and the context of those challengers, many
are facing budgetary pressure and funding cuts, as seen in the cases
from Australia and Japan. To deal with budgetary pressure and funding
cuts, local governments must look at their services and ways to makethem much more efficient. Professor Sansom emphasized two
critical points to reduce the gap between governments and citizens - working with local citizens, and being
accountable to local citizens. He also said that it is important for local governments to effectively communicate
and cooperate with each other.

2Though improving local government efficiency may be a challenging
process that requires patience plus a lot of time and effort, we have to takethe opportunity to further improve. This year’s forum allowed us to learn
from one another, and work towards the common goal of improving local
government efficiency and performance. We would like to thank all of ourspeakers and participants for making this year’s forum a great success.
For
more
informationon theSansom
presentations
featuredin theCLAIR
Forum 2012, please visit our website:
Specialthanks
to Professorand Ms
Artist for
theirinvaluable
http://www.jlgc.org.au/default.htm
contribution.

JET Programme Farewell Receptions

Each year, young Australians

embark on an exciting journey through the Japan
ExchangeandTeaching

Programme(JETProgramme).
This year CLAIR was able to farewell some of theJET Programme Participants at the official farewell
receptions, organized by the consulates.
thInthSydney (July 18 ), Brisbane (July 25 ), andMelbourne (July 27th), the Director of CLAIR joined
the respective Consul Generals in offering their best
wishes to the guys and gals headed to the land ofthe rising sun.
We were joined by other Japan related organizations and members of the Japanese press. The receptions
were a good opportunity for the new JETs to ask last minute questions about life in Japan to finalize their
preparations and begin the next chapter of their lives.
We hope that they gain a lot of wonderful experiences through this opportunity and serve as culturalambassadors to further strengthen ties between Australia and Japan.

21st Kawasaki Junior Cultural Prize Presentation
Four

schoolchildren,theKawasaki

YouthFriendshipAmbassadors, visited Wollongong in August. The Kawasaki Junior
Cultural Prize is an art and essay competition conducted annuallyfor Kawasaki school children aged 10-12 years. This is the 21styear of the competition, and the four students were chosen as thewinners of the competition which is coordinated by the Kawasaki
City Council and sponsored by the Kawasaki Shinkin Bank.
Next year, the Wollongong city council will celebrate the 25th
anniversary of its sister city relationship with Kawasaki city.
3From the Director

Summer festivals and Japanese local governments
In summer (around August, since the seasons in Japan are the oppositeof Australia’s), there are a lot of summer festivals and fireworks all around
Japan. Most of them are originally based on religious ceremonies towelcome the return of one’s ancestors’ souls and to send them back tothe spiritual world.
Usually summer festivals are community based, but some are famous
national events which attract many people. One of the major summer

This year’s Aomori prefectural

festivals is the Aomori Nebuta Festival.

government Nebuta float

This festival is held annually from August 2–7 and features colourful lantern floats called Nebuta which are pulled
through the streets of Central Aomori. This event attracts around 2 million visitors. During this festival, about 20
large Nebuta floats are paraded through the streets. These floats are constructed of wooden bases and metalframes. Japanese papers, called washi, are glued over the frames. These amazing floats, with more than 5
metres height, are finished off with historical figures or kabuki scenes being painted onto the paper and arestunningly illuminated from inside. These floats can take up to a year tocomplete.
There is a dance portion of this festival.

The dancers are known as‘haneto’ and they wear special costumes for this dance.

Everyone iswelcome to join in. I had worked for Aomori prefectural government as thedirector general for three years before I came to Australia. At that time, I
had also been assigned as the leader of the Aomori prefectural government
Nebuta team. Aomori prefectural government, as one of the big enterprisesin this area, participates in the Nebuta festival with a giant Nebuta float whichis paraded with the staff of Aomori prefectural government.

In the sameway, Aomori city participates in this event. (In Japan, there are many cases
whereThe staff of CLAIR Tokyo joined Haneto
dancers, Misa Hirasawa (far left) will
work for CLAIR SYDNEY next year

where the capital city of a prefecture is the same nameof the prefecture. For example, Kyoto city is the capitalof Kyoto prefecture.)

The governor of Aomoriprefecture and the mayor of Aomori city also participate
in the Nebuta festival and promote their local brand formillions of visitors.
Major summer festivals in Japan are closely connectedwith the tourist industry and offer the best opportunities
for local governments to promote their tourist spots,
local food, local products and above all their historicalcultures. When you visit Japan in summer (again, itmeans winter here), be sure not to miss out.
The Aomori prefectural government Nebuta team with thegovoner Shingo Mimura (Blue) and me (White)

For further information:4

http://www.atca.info/nebuta_en/