The geographical study of local government is fundamental to understanding how questions of power, politics, and public services play out across individual places and communities within a nation or state. Because of the contingent nature of local government in Australia, its study also provides a window into the power and politics of state governments. For much of Australia’s history as a nation, local governments have existed only because of legislation enacted by the states and territories. Local governments are not now recognised in the Constitution of Australia nor were they ever recognised in any state constitution until a wave of amendments between 1979 and 1989—recognition that was “inserted by ordinary legislation and can be repealed in the same way” (Roth,2013, p. 3). In short, they remain without constitutions of their own. As a result, local governments continue to rely on state governments for their existence, revealing along the way much about certain whims at that larger jurisdictional level.
This is the first paragraph of an academic virtual issue editorial originally published as Datu (2020), ‘Geographies of local government’, Geographical Research 58(30), 304–309. Click on the following link to read the entire editorial (free access).
https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-5871.12404
See also Coronavirus disease and local government, which was written in response to this editorial.