City of Darwin Council has unanimously endorsed the 2019/20 Annual Report, which represents the first year of reporting against the Darwin 2030 City for People. City of Colour Strategic Plan and includes Council’s first ever Place Score Results.
In 2019/20, Councils spent around $105M locally (including staff costs) and directly employed 358 staff, generating an additional $74M to the local community.
“This year has been like no other,” said Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis “with the covid pandemic effectively bringing our City to a standstill on Tuesday 24 March, when the NT borders were closed.”
“Council made a decision at the time to bring forward spending on infrastructure projects, provide a range of economic stimulus and create jobs – initiatives that supported our community at a critical time.”
“Our aim was to put Darwin and our community first!”
City of Darwin released it’s largest ever Economic Stimulus, a $55.0M Package designed to support the community and city respond and recover from the pandemic. The package included:
- a $25.0M commitment to stimulate the construction sector
- employment opportunities in the Green Army for 100 locals who had lost their jobs due to covid
- support to local businesses through the myDarwin vouchers
- rate relief and deferral, removal of fees and increased community grant programs
- investment in community safety and through contracted security patrols.
City of Darwin also renewed its focus on buying local and engaging local contractors.
“Our Council was and continues to be in a strong financial position,” said Lord Mayor Vatskalis “and it is important in times of need to fully support our community – and that is exactly what we did.”
“I know that all Elected Members and City of Darwin staff are very proud of the way we responded and how quickly we responded,” Lord Mayor concluded.
Other key achievements outlined in the Annual Report include:
- 4,000 trees delivered to green Darwin with a further 4,000 committed in 2020/21
- Daly Street beautification delivered in house, on time and on budget
- Significant beatification works and small projects across Darwin’s four wards
- Local spend 91%
- Service levels maintained within operating budgets
- Council’s IT assets upgraded
- Completion of the suburban lights project with new energy efficient LED’s.
