The major local government lobby says the Prime Minister's office has been silent about giving councils a role in National Cabinet.

National Cabinet has replaced the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), of which the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) was a member for 28 years.

ALGA president David O'Loughlin says local government wants to be back in the meetings.

“We're not at all happy that we've been left off the list of people at that table,” he said.

“We've only been left with an opportunity to speak once a year to the gathering of first ministers and treasurers.”

ALGA sits on several councils and has a role in ministerial meetings below the National Cabinet level, but many of those forums are under review.

Mr O’Loughlin says councils are being smashed by the pandemic, losing millions in revenue.

“We haven't been given a good reason why it's happened,” he said.

“We do run aged care, primary health and public health offices, so there was certainly a strong interface that would have been helpful.”

Mr O’Loughlin says councils will be an important part of economic recovery.

“We're exactly the right level of government to be able to run small scale, local, grassroots employment programs, including training programs to get the nation back on its feet,” he said.

“Even with programs such as the building grant, wouldn't it be good if local government had known about it so that our planners could be ready for the influx.”

Federal local government minister Mark Coulton says councils will still have some kind of contact with the upper levels of government.

“National Cabinet is not just a replacement of COAG,” he said.

“It's part of the reform process, and the decision not to have local government there was not only made by the Prime Minister but also by the state premiers.”

He also said the higher levels of government are still paying to stimulate local economies.

“Half a billion dollars went out the door last month to enable them to undertake projects that will stimulate the economies that have been impacted by COVID-19,” the minister said.

“During the drought we made two rounds of $1 million each, as well as the bushfires last summer.

“The Federal Government goes to local government to have that ability to focus on local communities and put the assistance where it's needed most.”