Ahead of the federal election, local governments are seeking assurances from political parties that they will deliver a contemporary funding model to meet the expanded responsibilities of councils.
“The pending federal election needs commitments from all political parties to not leave councils behind, to not leave councils stuck in the ‘70s,” Local Government Association of Queensland CEO Alison Smith said.
Smith’s comment follows the release of an interim report from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Development, Infrastructure and Transport, which found that, as the role of local government has rapidly expanded, “significant strain” has been placed on councils to deliver services and meet community expectations.
“Local governments around Australia are increasingly being called upon to provide healthcare services and housing, managing ageing infrastructure and assets, and respond to current and future climate adaptation needs,” committee chair Luke Gosling said. “These additional responsibilities are placing a significant financial strain on local governments who are struggling to meet community expectations.”
While welcoming the committee’s acknowledgment of the impacts of cost-shifting and the expansion of councils’ responsibilities beyond “road, rates and rubbish”, Smith called on the panel to recommend a “real, fair funding increase” in its final report, which GN has been told will be delivered “in due course”.
“Expecting councils to continue to do more with less in the face of the evidence this inquiry has gathered shows just how dire the need is for fairer funding,” Smith said.
“Councils were promised fairer funding in 2022, but this didn’t happen,” she added. “Instead, the percentage of federal united funding that councils receive has gone backwards.”
The parliamentary inquiry received 280 submissions – LGAQ’s was among them. “We said in our submission to the inquiry the current federal funding model is broken,” Smith said.
Councils are “weathering a perfect storm”, she added. “For decades, they’ve been receiving a declining share of national taxation yet cost-shifts imposed on councils every year have been increasing by hundreds of millions of dollars a year.”
It was “crucial” the standing committee delivered its final report as soon as possible, Smith said – “It is beyond time for fair funding for councils.”
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