The aim of the partnership agreements program is to find better ways of serving Tasmanian communities by the two levels of government (state and local government) working together.

Partnership agreements are part of the State Government's broader agenda of developing partnerships with the community to find new opportunities for economic and social development.

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Background

A partnership agreement is a document that sets out actions and timeframes for a range of important social, environmental and economic issues. Partnership agreements were introduced to improve the working relationship between the State Government and local government in Tasmania.

The Local Government Partnership Agreements program was launched in Tasmania in 1998 and the first partnership agreement was signed in June 1999.

Four types of partnership agreements are now developed under the program:

• Bilateral
  • A bilateral partnership agreement is between the State Government and one council. The first bilateral agreement was signed with Circular Head Council on 1 June 1999.
• Regional
  • The State Government introduced regional partnership agreements to address issues that cross local boundaries but do not apply to the whole state.
• Statewide
  • Statewide partnership agreements are developed under the Premier's Local Government Council between the state and all local governments on issues of statewide significance.
• Tripartite
  • A ground-breaking tripartite partnership agreement on Population Ageing in Tasmania is under implementation within the partnership agreements program. It is the first agreement of its kind in Australia.

Aims and objectives

The aim of partnership agreements between the State Government and local government is to find ways of better serving Tasmanian communities through a cooperative approach between the two spheres of government.  Since the program was launched in 1998, partnership agreements have been very successful in delivering a wide range of positive outcomes for local communities across the State and in improving the working relationship between councils and State agencies.

The objectives of partnership agreements are to:

• With the local community, identify opportunities to work in partnership with Local Government to progress agreed social, economic and environmental issues for local government areas
• Ensure effective service delivery arrangements to meet the reasonable needs of all residents including, where appropriate, options to improve coordination of joint service delivery arrangements to address gaps and overlaps in service delivery

The agreements are integral to implementing the benchmarks set by Tasmania Together - the 20 year social, economic and environmental plan for the State

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