Victorian local government is navigating a rapid but uneven technological transition where individual adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is outpacing organisational response in many councils. The sector has genuine capability emerging at one end of the spectrum and real gaps at the other. This report presents a sector-wide baseline of AI adoption across Victorian local...

This paper maps how cities organise for emergencies and proposes a new design tool for city leaders. Applied to city governance, the concept of the stack has five layers: what an emergency system must do, who carries those functions, shared standards and protocols, digital infrastructure and physical infrastructure.

This report reviews the Enhanced Maternal and Child Health Service (EMCH) in Victoria. It assesses whether EMCH is achieving its intended outcomes of reaching families with the greatest need. It recommends improvements in data collection to enable the performance of the program to be assessed and ensure it is reaching families in greatest need.

The issue of targeted disinformation and harassment of local elected representatives is a local manifestation of broader societal trends. This report considers how harassment of local elected representatives is enabled by new technologies and capabilities to manipulate information. It recommends enhanced regulatory protections, including a holistic response model.

The toolkit provides local councils in New South Wales with information, ideas and examples of what services and functions they provide that align with the aims and objectives of Closing the Gap. It offers practical examples, tools, templates and self-assessment tools for councils to measure how they align and where they can evolve.