THE final sitting week of the Victorian Parliament year was an extremely productive one.
After formalising my alliance with Reason’s Fiona Patten last Friday, the coalition has already paid dividends, with Ms Patten questioning Minister for Local Government Shaun Leane in the Legislative Council on Tuesday about regional rates.
Rate reform is going to be a key Reason for the Regions policy platform, so it was heartening to hear Mr Leane say the Victorian Government was serious about tackling the issue.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the unique challenges – and vulnerabilities – we face in the north-west of Victoria due to our isolation.
There is no doubt the inequity in rates is one of the major challenges, brought about partly because our isolation and sparse population – among a range of other issues – puts upward cost pressures on local governments.
As I said in a speech to the parliament on Wednesday, it is a scandalous injustice that ratepayers in Mildura with a modest house should have to pay twice the rates of a person with a million-dollar mansion in Geelong.
We need the Victorian Government to take this issue seriously. We don’t need more reviews, we need action.
We know there is a way to fix the problem.
If the Victorian Government could tweak the way it distributes Federal Government rates assistance funds, it would make a negligible difference to city ratepayers while being a true game-changer in rural and regional Victoria.
Mr Leane said the Victorian Government had been lobbying the Federal Government to increase its assistance funding, however my pitch to him will also be about how Victoria distributes the money.
To hear Mr Leane say the Victorian Government wants to do “real work on this, not a review” shows the government is serious about righting the wrongs of the current system.
With State Parliament in recess until February, the hard work behind the scenes will continue. The Reason Coalition has put the rate inequity issue on the radar in both houses of Parliament this week – now we’ll work together to get the results we deserve.
