Safety officers to patrol Hobart CBD to curb antisocial behaviour
By Scout Wallen

A trio of council-employed public safety monitors will soon be patrolling "hot spots" in the Hobart CBD, to try to curb antisocial behaviour and theft.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-31/hobart-council-public-safety-monitors/106512602

#LocalGovernment #ScoutWallen

Mystery of blurry councillors sparks claims of conspiracy and clout-chasing
By Sarah Richards

The incident sparked a debate over conspiracies, technology, TikTok, and clout-chasing in Australia's largest local council.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-30/qld-councillors-blurred-during-meeting-livestream/106502788

#LocalGovernment #SarahRichards

Local Politics in the Natural World

As I’ve noted here time after time (go to Bioregionalism for example), political activism, environmentalism and social organization are most effective at the local level, where we have direct contacts with fellow citizens, elected officials and candidates for local government offices.

We’re in the run-up for the Santa Cruz City Council Mayor election coming up in June, and five candidates have joined the fray. The first to announce is Ryan Coonerty, past City Council Mayor and County Supervisor who is the obvious front runner of the five mayoral candidates, including Gillian Greensite, Chris Krohn, Ami Chen Mills and Joy Schendledecker.

From the perspective of Living in the Natural World, the standout candidate is Gillian Greensite. Gillian is the only candidate for Mayor with any meaningful experience in environmental activism. She has worked to protect local beaches and shorebirds from rampant off-leash dogs, is frequently the sole defender of Santa Cruz City urban trees allegedly protected under the City’s Significant Trees ordinance, and has consistently promoted and defended transparency and public participation in environmental reviews of major City projects.

No other mayoral candidate understands the importance of ecocentrism as the central principle of human governance in a world of increasing destruction of finite resources and natural habitat through human population and economic growth. No other candidate is willing to challenge the political and cultural status quo based on consumption based economic growth.

There’s a good chance that with support of Gillian’s campaign, Ryan Coonerty will not receive 50% or more of the vote, and will have to face Gillian in a runoff election.

I urge you to support Gillian Greensite in her campaign, and spread the word to other Santa Cruz City residents.

EPA, developer defend records over contentious WA beach development
By Sam Tomlin, Stan Shaw, and Gabrielle Becerra Mellet

The City of Busselton says the watchdog has ignored its own rules after giving the Smiths Beach development the green light, but Fini Group says its work was "rigorous".

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-28/epa-under-fire-city-of-busselton-smiths-beach/106474390

#RegionalDevelopmentandPlanning #EnvironmentalImpacts #StateandTerritoryGovernment #LocalGovernment #SamTomlin #StanShaw # #GabrielleBecerraMellet

Telstra outage in remote NT community impacting Triple Zero access
By Elsie Lange

Residents in the remote NT community of Kintore have had difficulty making Triple Zero calls during a six-day Telstra outage, which has also caused issues buying fuel.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-27/telstra-outage-in-kintore-nt-impacting-power-fuel-and-triple0/106499742

#TelecommunicationsServicesIndustry #MobilePhones #Internet #RegionalCommunities #LocalGovernment #MobileandInternetAccess #ElsieLange

Key Biscayne Independent: Censorship by invoice? Village starts charging $70 an hour for public records after settlement of gag policy lawsuit. “Village Manager Steve Williamson won’t say if his new policy to charge for public documents once free applies only to the media – like his media gag policy did. Still, theIndependent is now being charged for receiving government emails, which for […]