Various state-based and national reports into Australian local government have conclusively demonstrated that the problem of financial sustainability is widespread amongst local councils, especially in non-metropolitan areas. The main impact of this financial distress has fallen on local...

A series of national and state public inquiries have established that the great majority of Australian local councils find themselves in straitened financial circumstances, with the problem of financial distress most acute in small regional, rural and remote local authorities. Given the spatial...

The Australian grape-growing and wine producing industry enjoyed meteoric growth from the early 1990s onwards, with wine sales forming an increasingly important element of both national export earnings and farm-sector income. Despite this success, a recent downward slump in industry...