Human resource management in Australian local government traditionally
has been seen as the preserve of the internal management of local authorities
although it has been practised within a framework drafted by state govern
ments. Together with other prescription-based management practices, it has
become a target of the national microeconomic reform process in the latter
part of the 1980s, primarily through the intervention of the Commonwealth
and state ministers for local government. This paper identifies the external
pressures that have encouraged the reform of local government's human
resource management practices and traces local government responses to these
pressures.
The paper highlights the tension in promoting local autonomy while max
imizing the impact of national and state strategies to increase the efficiency
of public sectors in all spheres of government. It also raises the very real
problem of implementing national change strategies at the local level.
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