Comparison Of Business Paper Structures In Australian Local Government Papers

Undertake a critical review of the structure of different Australian local government business papers, and then prepare briefing report for a local council or one of its committees on the future planning and delivery of water resources for the local area.

Key Headings in Business Papers

The three Australian Local government papers, which are taken into consideration are the Hawkesbury City Council, the Camden Council Administration Center and the City of Parramatta Council. All three of them have a different business paper structure that highlights the pros and cons of each paper.

Comparison between Hawkesbury City Council, Camden Council Administration Centre & City of Parramatta Council

Every council has a different approach to present a business paper report. Even if the headings are similar the contented presented under them may differ. The main headings that are found in the business paper may include background, consultation, community engagement, recommendations, financial implications and conclusion. The various headings in the three council’s business papers are-

The Camden Council and the Parramatta Council, both have the heading the purpose of the report. The purpose of the business meeting is stated under this heading in a concise manner. The Camden Council though provides a bit more detail in comparison to the Parramatta Council. The Hawkesbury Council does have this heading, but they explain the purpose of the report under the heading executive summary.

The background heading may vary for each business paper, like in some the information about the strategies is given while in some the schedule of the project is given. In the Hawkesbury business paper, under the background heading the strategy, program, plan and the future meeting of the council are highlighted. In the Camden Council paper, the actions that have to be implemented are discussed shortly, this also includes the financial assistance that will be required which is missing in the business paper of Hawkesbury. In the business paper of Parramatta, the reports that have been presented before and the conclusion of those meetings are discussed under the background heading in this business paper.

The main body of each business paper has a different set of the heading which are utilized with a different approach. The main headings of the Hawkesbury business paper are recommendations, consultation and financial implications. The issues that the project is facing, the consultation explains the important sources who have been consulted for the final decision, but the heading financial implications do not explain anything in a clear manner and are hardly used. In the business paper of Camden Council, the main body has heading like sustainability, productivity, infrastructure, strategic plan, GAP analysis, consultation strategy, recommendations and financial implication, all are explained in a detailed manner with the response of the office on each aspect of the project. It is a more detailed business paper in comparison to the both the Hawkesbury and the Parramatta. The best paper is of Parramatta Council, as it provides the exact information that is needed for each heading and all the information provided is selected on the basis of priority. The main headings of this paper are issues, options, consequences, recommendations, timings and consultations.

The best heading is the productivity and the sustainability heading in the Camden Council paper and the worst headings is in the Hawkesbury business paper that is interest changes. Also, for the business paper of Parramatta the heading issues/options/consequences should be broken down into three different headings rather than just a single one (Canon, 2016)..

Council Business Paper Report

The structure of the business paper incorporated in the report is of the City of Parramatta Council.

Subject: 2017 Metropolitan Water Plan NSW

The main purpose of this report is to fulfill the four key objectives of the Council of NSW in relation to the water issues. The main objectives of the report include, an affordable and secure water supply system, the system of water supply should be free from shocks and stresses, the water supply system should facilitate better urban communities and the downstream of the rivers from the dams those, which are healthy (Artlett and Pask, 2017).

The recommendations for the NSW Council for the Water Plan 2017 are-

1. That the water demands in the metropolitan regions are increasing at a very high pace that results in droughts and many other issues. The council should regularly investigate the rapid increase in the water consumptions in the Sydney region to understand the real issues.
2. That the council should also delegate officers to investigate the issue of growing use of water and also the highest percentage of misuse of water that is conducted in the metropolitan areas.
3. That the council from the analysis about the use and the misuse of water should formulate strategies that are strict and should impose to it instantly to control the huge problem of water deficiency.
4. That the council should perform community practices that are focused on correct water use and preservation, to increase the resilience and liveability in the community areas.
5. The council has to incorporate many other additional measures to deal with the growing uncertainty related to the climate change, the increasing use of water and many other obligations. This should be tackled accordingly, by keeping the main focus on the community’s growth and the required education that will help in controlling the matters related to water issues in the future (Kemper and Stober, 2017).

1. After the early 2000s millennium drought, there were alarming signals that showcased the showcased the problem of water deficiency highly. A lot of measures were taken that have been beneficial, but with the growing use of water and the growing population, the correct use of water is crucial and also its preservation. The Water Plan 2017 of the NSW was started with this initiative.
2. The Water Plan 2017 will include the areas of Sydney, Blue Mountains, and Illawarra. The optimization of water is important for maintaining a vibrant Sydney life and a healthy environment (Lequerica and McInnes, 2016).
3. The Water Plan 2017 has been initiated with the objective of building water SMART cities. This means that new approaches will be formulated and implicated to the stormwater, wastewater services, so as to help the communities with the rising demands of water.
4. The Water Plan 2017 has also another main aim of helping the metropolitan regions to face the problems of droughts and other issues due to water. In this, the council has also implicated a Drought Response strategy, which has to be implicated with all seriousness.
5. The Water Plan 2017 also aims at improving the health of the water bodies, especially rivers in and near the region of Sydney. The council will release a number of environmental flows from the areas of Warragamba Dam. This will be conducted to protect and improve the health of the river Hawkesbury-Nepean.

The main challenges which the council of Water NSW is facing have been listed below-

1. The increasing demand for water is putting a huge pressure on the council to implicate strategy that helps in better conservation of water for the future. The population of the Greater Sydney will increase by two million in the next 20 years, according to the studies conducted, this has imposed a huge pressure on the water system that has to be even more efficient than before. This challenge is being tackled by utilizing a water conservation strategy that is focused on the long term.
2. The other challenge that the council is facing is the growing urbanization in the communities that are affecting the liveability. The growing urbanization is directly integrated with the growing needs of water that will affect the lifestyle of the communities and hence the pressure on the council increase. The growing urbanization also signals the alarming signs of growing pollution that will affect the quality of the water and this is a collective challenge for the council (Li, Wills and Golding, 2017).
3. The Council is also facing problems with the rapid climate changes. The climate changes give rise to uncertainty. This uncertainty may result in climates that may be very hot, dry or wet. The climate in the NSW is changing at a very high pace, that indicates an increase in the temperature of the region and the also fluctuation in the rainfall patterns. All these attributes add up to the problems that the council is facing due to the pressure that is generated on the water resources in this region (Magee et al., 2017).
4. Dams are a huge source of water in this region, but protecting the health of the rivers is getting affected by the dams. The Warragamba Dam, provides Sydney with almost 80% of the water demand. The dam is continuously affecting the health of the river by reducing their water content. The downstream environment of the river to the dam is the main reason for the reduction in the quality of the river.
5. The next challenge which the council is facing is maintaining a cost-effective approach to building a water system that is sustainable and affordable. The council incorporates late in their planning process the changes that cities will go through for the implication of the water system. The cities will expand and thus to provide a cost-effective method is getting increasingly difficult for the council (Mazumder et al., 2017).

1. The Council has to continue with the available resources that they have. An important consultation is required between the officers, to tackle the problem of growing urbanization in the communities. The communities have to work according to the growing threats against the water and have to follow the strict guidelines that are drawn from the council.
2. The council requires consultation for the growing problems in the quality of the water bodies that are decreasing with each passing day. The downstream nature of the rivers has required a different approach that helps the dams too, and also the rivers maintain their quality (Ocock et al., 2017).
3. The council also have to improve the quality of water by implicating the strategies for the cleaning of the water bodies that have to be performed in the available resources. The council also has to invest more in the water conservation strategies as the uncertainties that are attached to the changing environment of the metropolitan regions have displayed shocking signals.
4. The water supply system has to be more cost effective and it should also be flexible that caters to the growing population and the expansions of the regions. This should also be a long term attempt as the changes will continuously take place in the Greater Sydney.
5. The council has to improvise their demand management measures and they also require a wider approach. The council has to include multiple water supply system that helps with water conservation, water recycling and maintaining the quality of water through the region (Rahman, 2017).

The financial implications that the council is going to face are-

1. The expansion of the regions will increase the cost of the water supply system. Though the council has stated that the water supply system is still affected by the growing population, according to the research conducted by the council, but this will definitely have an implication of the investment that is being incurred by the council.
2. The other additional activities that have to be conducted for maintaining the quality of water like the additional conservation practices, the recycling of the water, and the community events that have to be increased with the growing urbanization. Thus, this will have a financial implication on the council and on the Water Plan of 2017.
3. The council also has to undertake certain measure to educate the different population ratios about the growing concerns with water. This requires additional strategies that have to be undertaken for educating the children, teenagers, adults and the senior citizens about the water conservation techniques and how each one of them can contribute to water preservation. The largest volume of water consumption takes place in a household environment, but there are many measures that can be taken by the council towards family education about the water preservation methods. All these activities are additional to the ones that are included in the budget of the plan and thus, this will have a financial implication on the council (Skinner, List and Wright, 2012).

References

Artlett, C. and Pask, H. (2017). New approach to remote sensing of temperature and salinity in natural water samples. Optics Express, 25(3), p.2840.

Canon, J. (2016). Water Management In NSW And Colombia: Similarities And Differences. Water e-Journal, pp.1-7.

Kemper, E. and Stober, T. (2017). Springfield – Greene County Integrated Plan: A Citizen Focused Approach. Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation, 2017(2), pp.33-57.

Lequerica, M. and McInnes, R. (2016). EVALUATION OF UPGRADE EFFECTS IN FOUR SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTS IN NSW. Water e-Journal, 1(1), pp.1-8.

Li, Y., Wills, R. and Golding, J. (2017). Storage at elevated ambient temperature and reduced ethylene delays degreening of Persian limes. Fruits, 72(5), pp.288-291.

Magee, A., Verdon-Kidd, D., Diamond, H. and Kiem, A. (2017). Influence of ENSO, ENSO Modoki, and the IPO on tropical cyclogenesis: a spatial analysis of the southwest Pacific region. International Journal of Climatology, 37(1), pp.1118-1137.

Mazumder, D., Saintilan, N., Wen, L., Kobayashi, T. and Rogers, K. (2017). Productivity influences trophic structure in a temporally forced aquatic ecosystem. Freshwater Biology, 62(9), pp.1528-1538.

Ocock, J., Bino, G., Wassens, S., Spencer, J., Thomas, R. and Kingsford, R. (2017). Identifying Critical Habitat for Australian Freshwater Turtles in a Large Regulated Floodplain: Implications for Environmental Water Management. Environmental Management, 61(3), pp.375-389.

Rahman, S. (2017). Implementation of Ballast Water Management Plan in Ships Through Ballast Water Exchange System. Procedia Engineering, 194(2), pp.323-329.

Skinner, J., List, P. and Wright, C. (2012). Utilisation of the Medicare Teen Dental Plan in NSW, 2008 - 2010. New South Wales Public Health Bulletin, 23(2), p.5.