HEADLINES are designed to grab attention. And Monday’s front page in the Sunraysia Daily that screamed ‘Rate pain’ certainly did that.
Everyone from Mayor Liam Wood, to his fellow councillors, Member for Mildura Ali Cupper and hundreds of readers have contacted us this week to have their say.
Mildura councillors last week voted to approve the 2022-23 budget, which has an average rate increase capped by the Victorian Government at 1.75 per cent. Most councillors spoke against the “buggered” state rating system, but ultimately the budget passed without alteration.
But here’s the thing: Councillors are not to blame for passing on the rate rise. It is the system that is flawed. And those who attack councillors personally from the cheap seats of social media, are as ill-informed as they are gutless.
Remember, councillors are ratepayers themselves, operating with no self-interest on this issue, and are tasked with striking a balance of keeping rates at a minimum while continuing to provide necessary services.
As Cr Jodi Reynolds pointed out, if the council is not getting appropriate funding from governments to provide services and not getting the money from rates “then we also need to have the conversation with the community, ‘Well, what services do you want us to cut?’”
Ms Cupper again spoke of the alarming rates inequality in State Parliament last week. “The current Victorian rate system makes a mockery of the general Australian tax principle that citizens should not be subjected to wildly different tax rates depending on where they live,” she told parliament.
“In my electorate, a farmer in Buloke is paying up to six times the rates of a resident of Toorak with a property of the same value.”
Having served as a councillor for six years prior to becoming an MP, Ms Cupper knows the rates issue only too well. “That is why when I was elected to State Parliament, I was determined not to throw my former council colleagues under the bus and pretend it was no longer my problem, because as a state MP it was squarely my problem, and the same can be said of our federal MPs or any federal MPs.”
Ms Cupper’s problem, however, is getting any state MP or federal MP to join the fight. She has written to every rural and regional Victorian MP asking them to stand in solidarity with their rural and regional constituents across party lines. Most did not even reply. Others have given a polite “no”.
Disappointingly, too, that extends to our federal MP Anne Webster, who should be going into bat for us on this issue at a federal level, where the government can make a big difference by doing one small thing. The Australian Local Government Association has called on the Federal Government to commit to a progressive increase in Financial Assistance Grants to at least 1 per cent of Commonwealth taxation revenue (at least $4.5 billion per year), as well as initial injection of additional Financial Assistance Grants funding.
To put that into context, 1 per cent was the figure the government contributed back in the 1970s, but for some reason has been slashed over time to 0.55 per cent. Yep, its contributions have gone backwards while the costs on local councils have gone through the roof. Guess who makes up for the huge shortfall?
If the Federal Government pulled that one lever and returned that contribution to 1 per cent, Victoria’s allocation would, by extension, rise from $656.4 million to $1.03 billion. For regional MPs of any party, at both federal and state level, to not demand this on behalf of their constituents is, frankly, shameful.
I’d even ask where are the Nationals on this issue? As the old Country Party, why are they not fighting for a fairer rates system for country people? Are Nationals MPs honestly OK with the fact that a farmer in Manangatang is paying four times the rates of their metropolitan counterpart in, say, Brighton?
Personally, I applaud Ms Cupper on her RateGate campaign, but what an indictment on her fellow country politicians that she has been left to fight this issue virtually on her own. By ignoring this blatant inequity in city versus country rates, are MPs in the bush serving their constituents, or only themselves? It seems most of them are happy enough to hide behind their parties, not do their jobs, and instead leave local councillors to cop all the community flak.
