The last few years have seen unprecedented change taking place in the Australian local government arena. In all states the functions and responsibilities of local authorities have been subjected to extensive reform. New legislation has redefined the role of councillors. Local governments have been required to introduce more efficient and effective management practices and become more open and responsive to their constituencies. The scope of traditional regulatory practices has been altered and councils forced to develop a competitive environment for the provision of services. The place of local authorities in the intergovernmental landscape has also changed. Different forms of interaction between Commonwealth, state and local government are evolving along with the emergence of new funding strategies to encourage a regional focus. This is the first book to offer a detailed discussion of the reforms that have taken place, and at the same time provide an informative and readable analysis for practitioners and students of government, politics and public sector management.

Explore the latest groundbreaking e-government insider information! The World of E-Government investigates how electronic communication is helping to revolutionize democracies across the globe. Using case studies, cutting-edge research, and commentary from some of the field’s foremost researchers, practitioners, and industry leaders, this first-of-its-kind volume explores the enormous future potential of e-government as it links all world citizens locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. This pioneering text offers the experiences of many leading countries using electronic government, showing you what mistakes they made, the benefits they’ve reaped, and the impact of e-government to democracy, traditional government, and international commerce. Contributors to this timely book include some of the world’s leading practitioners in e-government—people who were actually involved in establishing and shaping the experiences of countries now ranked as leaders in e-government projects. These authorities reveal how their countries successfully implemented e-strategies to directly benefit their citizens. The World of E-Government details how electronic government is being used to govern and change the lives of citizens online in such areas of the world as: the United States Singapore Canada the European Union Australia New Zealand Germany This book will give you a better understanding of: how to best plan for citizen use of e-government how countries have avoided waste and unnecessary spending how e-government can move forward by using optimal planning and previous experiences what citizens expect of e-government in countries around the globe the realities, the latest initiatives, and the future of e-government in America, Europe, and elsewhere The World of E-Government is an essential book for all elected officials and their staffs, e-government practitioners, researchers, and information specialists to use in order to stay up-to-date with the growing needs of the general public. The advice offered in this text can help you improve service delivery, provide vital information to the public, and enhance public participation online. This volume contains useful bibliographies, additional readings, tables, and figures to further your career or research studies in public administration, government, political science, law, education, or information technology.

The Government and Copyright: The Government as Proprietor, Preserver and User of Copyright Material Under the Copyright Act 1968 focuses on the interplay between law, policy and practice in copyright law by investigating the rights of the government as the copyright owner, the preserver of copyright material and the user of other's copyright material under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The first of two recurring themes in the book asks the question whether the needs and status of government should be different from private sector institutions, which also obtain copyright protection under the law. The second theme aims to identify the relationship between government copyright law and policy, national cultural policy and fundamental governance values. "As the first authoritative treatise on government copyright to be published in Australia, this book will be of immediate interest and relevance to Australian lawyers and policy makers, particularly in the light of ongoing efforts to ensure that the intellectual property system stimulates innovation and fosters trade and investment. Given that government copyright is recognised to some extent in most countries worldwide, this book is a valuable contribution to the international literature on this topic, which remains sparse." From the Introduction by Dr Anne Fitzgerald and Prof. Brian Fitzgerald