STATE MP Ali Cupper has requested a meeting with the new Federal Local Government Minister, Catherine King, to seek progress on her RateGate campaign.
“We’ve got a new Federal Government now who can look at this problem with fresh eyes and commit to taking steps to address rising council rates in rural and regional Australia,” the independent Member for Mildura said.
Her campaign sets out the groundwork for structural reform to the Financial Assistance Grants Program, which is the main vehicle through which the Federal Government provides funding to local governments via the states and territories.
The campaign is also about pressuring the Victorian Government to address rate disparity in the longer term by reforming the rating system to be fairer to rural and regional ratepayers.
“The Federal Government can reform the Financial Assistance Grants Program to allow states to use the funding more flexibly, so money flows to councils who need it the most, rather than based on population,” Ms Cupper said.
“We also need the Financial Assistance Grants increased to their original intended size, which was one per cent of Commonwealth taxation revenue.”
Ms Cupper said having Ms King take on the Local Government portfolio from a regional Victorian seat should help with perspective.
“We need to ease the rate burden for rural and regional people, and the way to do this is by making our councils financially sustainable,” she said.
“The first step towards this goal is for the Feds to even out the playing field.”
Ms Cupper said rural and regional councils were doing their best on shoestring budgets and were under increasing pressure to maintain assets and services on thinning financial margins.
“In the face of strong global financial headwinds, the financial sustainability of Victoria’s rural and regional councils is at risk of worsening, and there’s no better time to pursue reforms to safeguard councils and take the burden off ratepayers,” she said.
Mildura councillors raised concerns at their June monthly meeting that there was “significant” financial stress on ratepayers and questioned how the community would survive if the council continued to increase rates to fund the services it provides.
