ORANGE CITY COUNCIL
Employment and Economic Development Policy Committee
Agenda
7 February 2017
Notice is hereby given, in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Act 1993 that a Employment and Economic Development Policy Committee meeting of ORANGE CITY COUNCIL will be held in the Council Chamber, Civic Centre, Byng Street, Orange on Tuesday, 7 February 2017.
Garry Styles
General Manager
For apologies please contact Michelle Catlin on 6393 8246.
Employment and Economic Development Policy Committee 7 February 2017
2.1 Minutes of the Economic Development Community Committee held 7 December 2016
3.1 Update on quarterly Unemployment data for Orange
Employment and Economic Development Policy Committee 7 February 2017
The provisions of Chapter 14 of the Local Government Act, 1993 (the Act) regulate the way in which Councillors and designated staff of Council conduct themselves to ensure that there is no conflict between their private interests and their public role.
The Act prescribes that where a member of Council (or a Committee of Council) has a direct or indirect financial (pecuniary) interest in a matter to be considered at a meeting of the Council (or Committee), that interest must be disclosed as soon as practicable after the start of the meeting and the reasons given for declaring such interest.
As members are aware, the provisions of the Local Government Act restrict any member who has declared a pecuniary interest in any matter from participating in the discussion or voting on that matter, and requires that member to vacate the Chamber.
Council’s Code of Conduct provides that if members have a non-pecuniary conflict of interest, the nature of the conflict must be disclosed. The Code of Conduct also provides for a number of ways in which a member may manage non pecuniary conflicts of interest.
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Recommendation It is recommended that Committee Members now disclose any conflicts of interest in matters under consideration by the Employment and Economic Development Policy Committee at this meeting. |
TRIM REFERENCE: 2017/11
AUTHOR: Kathy Woolley, Director Corporate and Commercial Services
EXECUTIVE Summary
The Economic Development Community Committee met on 7 December 2016 and the recommendations from the Committee are presented to the Employment and Economic Development Policy Committee for adoption.
Link To Delivery/OPerational Plan
The recommendation in this report relates to the Delivery/Operational Plan strategy “11.1 Our Economy – Encourage the growth of local business, support emerging industry sectors and attract new investment to Orange”.
Financial Implications
Council has been advised that as a council included in the NSW Government’s merger proposals under consideration by the Office of Local Government since referral on 6 January 2016, Council must comply with the merger proposal period guidelines issued under S23A of the Local Government Act 1993.
The guidelines instruct Council it should expend money in accordance with the detailed budget adopted for the purposes of implementing the Delivery/Operational Plan for the 2015/16 year.
Any expenditure outside the adopted budget requires the identification of clear and compelling grounds and must be approved by Council at a meeting that is open to the public. The guidelines indicate the resolution of Council for increased expenditure must specify the reasons why the expenditure is required and warranted.
If increased expenditure is greater than $250,000 or 1% of the Council’s revenue from rates in the preceding year, whichever is the greater, Council is required to exhibit the increase to the budget and consider comments received.
Council must also avoid entering into contracts or undertakings where expenditure or revenue is greater than $250,000 or 1% of the Council’s revenue from rates in the preceding year, whichever is the greater, unless the contract or undertaking is as a result of a decision or procurement process commenced prior to the merger proposal period or where entering into a contract or undertaking is reasonably necessary for the purposes of meeting the ongoing service delivery commitments of the Council or was previously approved in the Council’s Delivery/Operational Plan.
Policy and Governance Implications
Nil
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That the recommendations made by the Economic Development Community Committee at its meeting held on 7 December 2016 be adopted.
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further considerations
Consideration has been given to the recommendation’s impact on Council’s service delivery; image and reputation; political; environmental; health and safety; employees; stakeholders and project management; and no further implications or risks have been identified.
Attachment
1 Minutes of the Meeting of the Economic Development Community Committee held on 7 December 2016
ORANGE CITY COUNCIL
MINUTES OF THE
Economic Development Community Committee
HELD IN Councillor's Workroom, Civic Centre, Byng Street, Orange
ON 7 December 2016
COMMENCING AT 4.00Pm
1 Introduction
Attendance
Cr J Whitton (Chairperson), Cr C Gryllis, Mr Mick Banks, Mr Greg Beileiter, Mr Bruce Buchanan, Mr Andrew Wannan, Mr Tim Hall, Mr Tony Healey, Mr Craig Hort (4.02pm), Ms Catherine Nowlan, Ms Heather Robinson, Mr Russell Tym (4.12pm), Director Corporate and Commercial Services, Manager Business Development, Business Project Officer
1.1 Apologies and Leave of Absence
1.2 Acknowledgement of Country
1.3 Declaration of pecuniary interests, significant non-pecuniary interests and less than significant non-pecuniary interests
Nil
3 General Reports
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TRIM Reference: 2016/2806 |
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Recommendation Cr C Gryllis/Mr G Beileiter That the report by the Business Projects Officer on events in the Orange Region be acknowledged.
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TRIM Reference: 2016/2804 |
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Recommendation Cr C Gryllis/Mr G Beileiter That the report by the Manager Corporate and Community on rail infrastructure and service lobbying be acknowledged.
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TRIM Reference: 2016/2835 |
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Recommendation Mr B Buchanan/Mr T Hall That the Committee note the draft Tourism Strategy and members provide feedback by 13 December 2016.
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TRIM Reference: 2016/2818 |
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Recommendation Mr T Healey/Mr A Wannan That the Economic Development Community Committee Action Plan be reviewed and updates and deletions noted.
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4 WORKSHOP
The Meeting Closed at 5.28PM
TRIM REFERENCE: 2017/7
AUTHOR: Tony Boland, Business Projects Officer
EXECUTIVE Summary
At the Employment and Economic Development Policy Committee meeting of 3 May 2016, Council requested that the unemployment figures be reported to Council.
The Federal Department of Employment compiles and reports Small Area Labour Market (SALM) data. This report provides the most recently published data.
Link To Delivery/OPerational Plan
The recommendation in this report relates to the Delivery/Operational Plan strategy “11.1 Our Economy – Encourage the growth of local business, support emerging industry sectors and attract new investment to Orange”.
Financial Implications
Council has been advised that as a council included in the NSW Government’s merger proposals under consideration by the Office of Local Government since referral on 6 January 2016, Council must comply with the merger proposal period guidelines issued under S23A of the Local Government Act 1993.
The guidelines instruct Council it should expend money in accordance with the detailed budget adopted for the purposes of implementing the Delivery/Operational Plan for the 2015/16 year.
Any expenditure outside the adopted budget requires the identification of clear and compelling grounds and must be approved by Council at a meeting that is open to the public. The guidelines indicate the resolution of Council for increased expenditure must specify the reasons why the expenditure is required and warranted.
If increased expenditure is greater than $250,000 or 1% of the Council’s revenue from rates in the preceding year, whichever is the greater, Council is required to exhibit the increase to the budget and consider comments received.
Council must also avoid entering into contracts or undertakings where expenditure or revenue is greater than $250,000 or 1% of the Council’s revenue from rates in the preceding year, whichever is the greater, unless the contract or undertaking is as a result of a decision or procurement process commenced prior to the merger proposal period or where entering into a contract or undertaking is reasonably necessary for the purposes of meeting the ongoing service delivery commitments of the Council or was previously approved in the Council’s Delivery/Operational Plan.
Policy and Governance Implications
Nil
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That the report by the Business Projects Officer on the unemployment figures for Orange be acknowledged.
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further considerations
Consideration has been given to the recommendation’s impact on Council’s service delivery; image and reputation; political; environmental; health and safety; employees; stakeholders and project management; and no further implications or risks have been identified.
SUPPORTING INFORMATION
The SALM data is released by the Department of Employment three months after the end of the quarter. The most recent data available is for the quarter ending 30 September 2016. The data in this report is on a Local Government Area basis.
|
Measurement |
September Qtr 2016 |
|
Labour force |
22,742 |
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Unemployed persons |
1,018 |
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Unemployment rate – September 2016 |
4.5% |
The unemployment rate for the Orange LGA was 7% in the September 2015 quarter. The Department of Employment cautions consideration of quarter on quarter comparison due to the volatility of the data. It recommends analysis on year to year basis.
A comparison of the Orange LGA results in the September 2016 quarter to other LGAs is shown in the table below (noting this relates to the LGAs as they were in September 2016):
|
LGA |
UE rate –Sept 2016 |
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LGA |
UE rate –Sept 2016 |
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Albury |
8.1% |
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Lithgow |
6.7% |
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Armidale |
7.4% |
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Maitland |
5.3% |
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Bathurst |
4.0% |
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Mid-Western |
5.6% |
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Blayney |
4.1% |
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Oberon |
3.8% |
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Cabonne |
3.0% |
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Orange |
4.5% |
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Coffs Harbour |
4.6% |
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Parkes |
6.8% |
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Cowra |
6.6% |
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Port Macquarie |
5.0% |
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Forbes |
4.6% |
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Tamworth |
7.5% |
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Griffith |
3.6% |
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Wagga Wagga |
3.7% |
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Hilltops + |
4.9% |
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Western Plains+ |
4.7% |
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NSW |
4.9% |
+
Dubbo and Young Councils were amalgamated with other Councils to form new
merged entities.
Previous reports have reported the Dubbo and Young unemployment rate.
The SALM data has been measured for over 30 years. This information has been provided on a geographic basis where the boundaries match the appropriate Local Government Area. The graphs below depict the historical data for the Orange LGA.
Labour Force
The labour force is the number of persons aged over 15 years with the exclusion of certain persons, including those in permanent defence force positions, overseas residents in Australia and some diplomatic roles. The labour force is the number of non-excluded people who are working or actively looking for work, so the labour force figure includes people who are unemployed.
For Orange LGA, the graph below displays a peak in the labour force in March 2011 which coincided with a significant number of construction projects including Cadia East, CSU and new hospital by the Orange Health Service.
The period from December 2013 to September 2014 includes a significant number of people who relocated for the purposes of the Cadia East construction project and Orange Airport Development. This is reflected within our population statistics. September 2014 saw the completion of the last of these projects, with the conclusion of the Cadia East construction.
From September 2014 to June 2015 there was a significant reduction in the labour force. This was potentially linked to jobseeker confidence in the light of the scaling back of Electrolux operations. Jobseeker confidence and jobs have recovered well for the labour force to be at an all time high in June 2016 and only slightly less than that in the September 2016 quarter.
Unemployed persons
The number of unemployed persons in Orange LGA has traditionally been less than 1,000 persons.
The 1,000 person ‘barrier’ was broken after September 2012 quarter. This coincided with the completion of a number of large projects. The number of unemployed continued to climb quarter on quarter (with the exception of March and June 2014) until a peak of 1,504 was realised in September 2015 quarter.
There has since been a rapid decline in the number of unemployed people (to 1,018) in the twelve months from September 2015 to September 2016. This is a net reduction of 486 unemployed people over the twelve month period. The labour force also increased by 1047 people in this same period.
Unemployment rate
The unemployment rate has historically been relatively conservative in the 4-5 per cent range. The unemployment rate peaked in September 2015 at 7.0%. This quarter coincided with a significant number of retrenchments from Electrolux and the reduction of contractors at Cadia Valley Operations.
Employed persons
The figure for employed persons is not reported by the Department of Employment but is derived by taking the unemployed persons out of the labour force. The September 2016 quarter saw Orange achieve its highest ever level of people in employment (21,724 people). This figure is higher than the number of people employed at any time during the major construction projects or in the mining boom.
City to City Comparisons
It has become increasingly unreliable to do city to city comparisons using LGA boundaries as a number of Local Government Areas are now merged, and therefore increase in size. The Department of Employment now releases employment data using the Australian Statistical Geography Standard Statistical Area Level 2 geography. This allows data to be closely matched to the geography of a city rather than a Local Government Area.
By matching to the geography of a city, direct comparisons can be made between each city rather than guessing how much of the LGA data is attributable to the city and how much is attributable to villages and rural communities.
To help put the city based employment data in context, it is useful to gain an understanding of each city’s population. The table below shows the estimated residential population for the year ending June 30 for each of the cities.
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2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
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Orange City |
36,988 |
37,785 |
38,523 |
39,208 |
39,741 |
40,075 |
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Bathurst City |
33,328 |
33,754 |
34,203 |
34,855 |
35,369 |
36,013 |
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Dubbo City |
35,056 |
35,281 |
35,701 |
36,073 |
36,599 |
36,941 |
The Labour Force for the three cities is contained in the following graph. Of note, the lines denoting the Orange and Bathurst labour force almost run parallel over the entire period. Orange has consistently had a workforce of around 2,000 more people than Bathurst. This is consistent with having around an extra 4,000 residents in Orange compared to Bathurst.
