"The Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government is a unique collaboration of universities and professional bodies committed to the advancement of local government. The Centre's vision is: World-class local government to meet the emerging challenges of 21st century Australia"

Options for a Local Government Framework for Measuring Liveability 8th February 2012,  This report, Options for a local government framework for measuring liveability, has been produced by the Net Balance Management Group for Penrith City Council and ACELG to map current research and thinking on the state of community liveability indicator development across Australia.

The report is intended to facilitate further thinking and research through:

1. Increasing the amount of information in the public domain on community indicators
2. Providing a starting point for local councils seeking to develop their own community indicators
3. Stimulating discussion on the options for local government in developing an indicator framework that comprehensively covers the scope of their activities
4. Breaking down barriers with reporting on community indicators, including concerns about reporting on issues that councils do not control , and the importance of establishing an appropriate context if different local government areas are being compared
5. Assisting councils in critically examining the advantages, challenges and limitations of community indicators.

The report authors note that the measurement of community wellbeing is a dynamic and continually evolving area. They provide a comprehensive ‘snapshot’ of publicly available information at the time of writing and endeavour build on existing research pieces and initiatives, rather than replicate previous work. The report provides an initial analysis of twenty six frameworks, and then a more detailed analysis of six of those frameworks before providing a set of recommendations for local government.

A second phase of research, which involves the development of a set of community indicators for use by growth area, metropolitan councils, is now underway.

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