4.3 Local government Local governments and their peak bodies were identified as key stakeholders for identifying challenges and opportunities to inform the National Anti-Racism Framework. Efforts were made to secure participation from councils in every state and territory across the country, with limited success. Overall, local government stakeholders varied in the extent to which they embraced anti-racism as a priority for action among their constituents and this was reflected in their responses to and engagement with this research. It should be noted that local government experience a range of issues, including current levels of Financial Assistance Grants as the major source of federal funding;50 constraints in addressing rate peg systems (in NSW for example); cost shifting from other levels of government, and impacts of inflation. As a result, local government is generally reluctant to commit to work not funded by additional federal or state/territory government grants and is reluctant to add to its core responsibilities to its constituencies and extend commitments beyond what is already funded in services and community grants. There are clear pockets of anti-racism activity in some local government areas but most of the work happening in or around this space is taking place under broader ‘social cohesion’, ‘inclusion’ or ‘multicultural’ initiatives. This is consistent with current federal, state and territory approaches. Partnering with other stakeholders such as CALD and First Nations communities, tertiary institutions or state and federal human rights bodies seems to comprise a significant component of relevant work at the local government level. This is important but also highlights what efforts are missing where racism is not considered a priority and signals the reliance on these other stakeholders to address racism more generally. The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) emphasised that while they take a human rights-based approach to their work as the national peak body, the 537 councils within their federation differed in how they approach anti-racism issues. How racism is addressed is a matter for each council. Broadly there have been efforts to improve the cultural diversity within councils, use of Reconciliation Action Plans, and focus on working with multicultural, asylum seeker and refugee communities. Welcoming Cities was nominated as a standout initiative in which 84 councils are involved, representing 47 per cent of the Australian population.51 However ALGA also stated that resource constraints mean that councils are limited in what they can address and further noted the pressure to ensure that councils are financially able to address the growing impact Until 1989 local government was funded by the Commonwealth Government through a tax sharing arrangement aligned with growth in the Australian economy. This was changed to only increase by population growth and consumer price index and has reduced to around 0.5 percent of Commonwealth taxation revenue local governments nationally have been campaigning since for an increase to at least one 50 percent of Commonwealth taxation revenue. ALGA (2022) Financial Assistance Grants, accessed 19 February 2024 51 Welcoming Cities (2024) Our Members, accessed 12 February 2024 33