You’re not imagining it. The squeeze is real. In local government, the phrase ‘doing more with less’ has become a mantra, but for many WA councils, it’s starting to feel more like doing too much with nothing.
100 per cent of WA councils surveyed in LGPA’s 2023 workplace research reported skilled staff shortages. There’s a $12-15 billion infrastructure maintenance backlog nationally. Meanwhile, reforms and rising community expectations are calling for more digitally savvy councils but rarely is there the right funding to match.
Keep going as we are, and something has to give. Services shrink, infrastructure slips, staff burn out, and community trust frays.
Or take another path, one where responsive technologies act as a force multiplier.
Take the Shire of Manjimup. With just 124 staff serving 10,000 residents across 7,000km², they needed a practical way to stay connected with their community. Enter Datascape’s Antenno, Datacom’s two-way community engagement app for councils and their residents. The result? 58 per cent of community-reported issues now come through the app, with residents feeling more informed, more connected, and more aware of how their rates make a difference. Empowered experiences that genuinely redefine the everyday.
Or take the Shire of Halls Creek, one of Australia’s largest predominantly Indigenous communities, spanning 143,000km² of remote Kimberley country. They needed websites that could celebrate their diverse Aboriginal communities without adding technical complexity. What they got were platforms purpose-built for councils. Simple, beautiful, and built for connection.
Then there’s Wattle Range Council in South Australia. Burdened by legacy systems where late payments strained relationships, they found something transformative: actionable insights that led to real outcomes. When data revealed that 20 per cent of their landmass – under plantation forests – had surged 145 per cent in value, they used that evidence to successfully advocate for legislative change with the Valuer-General. That’s the difference between having data and using it.
The councils finding breathing room aren’t working harder, they’re working smarter. Every manual process, every disconnected system, is time your team can’t spend on meaningful community work.
This isn’t about replacing everything overnight. With personalised guidance, Manjimup started with community engagement. Halls Creek focused on accessible websites. Wattle Range tackled financial systems. Each took measured, practical steps, and saw tangible gains.
What’s possible:
- Responsive technologies that integrate seamlessly with what you already have
- AI that removes administrative bottlenecks while improving accuracy
- Tools designed for councils, not retrofitted from corporate systems
- Measurable outcomes you can extract, model, and act on
The 147 councils across Western Australia face many of the same pressures: constrained funding, workforce shortages, and the ongoing imperative to modernise.
The question isn’t whether transformation is needed, it’s how it happens. Will it build capability and confidence, or simply add to the burden?
The path forward doesn’t start with a massive overhaul. It starts with one practical improvement that proves the model works and shows what’s possible when technology helps you redefine the everyday.
To learn more, visit datacom.com/datascape.
