MEMBER for Mildura Ali Cupper is calling for an increase to the federal assistance grants funding pool, not only to address rates imbalances, but to keep major infrastructure projects on track in the wake of COVID-related cost increases.
“Projects that were scoped and costed two years ago are costing approximately 20 per cent more to build, meaning councils are having to dig into own source revenue or scale down plans, which is all-round bad news for ratepayers, who pay the price either way,” Ms Cupper said.
“The Federal Government could help by using this as an opportunity to do what it should have done a long time ago and increase the quantum of the federal assistance grants.”
The federal assistance grants scheme has shrunk as a proportion of GDP in past decades and was subject to an indexation freeze by the Federal Coalition Government from 2014 to 2017.
“The pandemic has made a desperate situation worse,” Ms Cupper said.
“If Canberra was to increase the size of the funding pie and, even better, allow states to allocate less on the basis of population and more on the basis of need, it would be a great win for everyone.”
Smaller councils in the Mildura electorate have suggested that if more money was available to them, they would spend roughly half on rate relief and the other half on infrastructure.
Ms Cupper has written to Federal Assistant Minister for Local Government Kevin Hogan, who acknowledged the issue but failed, she said, to commit to any meaningful change.
“We already have a commitment from the State Government to allocate more of its share to the rural and regional councils who need it most,” she said. “All we need now is for the feds to answer the call.
“The impasse on this issue – which could be so simple to solve – suggests to me that our community should make this an election issue in the lead-up to this year’s federal election.
“Every tier of government has a role to play to fix the scandalous disparity between rural-regional and metro rates.”
