LATEST NEWS

• Local government reform underway in the Northern Territory

  Major reform to local government will result in just 9 shires and 4 town and city councils instead of the more than 60 mostly community-based councils. The new councils will be established in July 2008. ACIL Tasman undertook detailed analysis for the NT Cattlemen's Association to assess the impact on the pastoral industry of the changes. The report found that the industry had quite low operating returns and therefore limited ability to pay additional rates and charges. It made recommendations on how reforms could be implemented to deliver benefits to stakeholders and so as not to threaten pastoral industry viability.
  
  Details of the reform proposals can be found here.

• The Northern Territory Government has committed to a new $12 million exploration initiative for the next 4 years titled ‘Bringing Forward Discovery’. This follows a detailed review by ACIL Tasman and Ross Fardon and Associates of NT exploration investment attraction programs between 1999 and 2007.

  The Northern Territory Government has committed to a new $12 million exploration initiative for the next 4 years titled ‘Bringing Forward Discovery’. This follows a detailed review by ACIL Tasman and Ross Fardon and Associates of NT exploration investment attraction programs between 1999 and 2007. The report made 19 recommendations for future strategies and activities. It found that while the program has been the most focussed and single biggest investment attraction program that the NT Government has mounted, the NT has not had major discoveries in minerals or on-shore petroleum for a generation. The report recommended that the focus of effort therefore must be to “bring forward discovery”, and to concentrate on potential for discovery of major resource deposits.

  Link to report:
  http://www.nt.gov.au/dpifm/Minerals_Energy/
  

  
  

  
  

• American Express commissions ACIL Tasman for review of card payments system

  On 31 August 2007 the ACIL Tasman submission was provided to the 2007/08 review of the reform of Australia’s payments system conducted by the Reserve Bank of Australia. This submission was commissioned by American Express Australia Limited and reviews recent developments in the economics of payment card systems.

  To view this submission click here. (521KB)