May 9, 2017
The South Burnett Regional Council’s finances will be slightly better off from July 1 thanks to Tuesday night’s Federal Budget.
Treasurer Scott Morrison announced the Federal Government will put an end to a three-year freeze on Financial Assistance Grants (FAGs) introduced by former Treasurer Joe Hockey in 2014.
FAGs grants are an untied payment councils use to provide better infrastructure and services for their communities.
Until the freeze was imposed, FAGs grants were indexed each year to match CPI rises and population changes.
FAGs grants are also an important revenue source for smaller councils, and rural and regional councils were amongst those hardest hit by the measure.
In all, the three year freeze is estimated to have cost Australian councils between $600 million and $1 billion in services and infrastructure spending.
And in the South Burnett – where FAGs grants make up to 13 per cent of the Council’s revenue – the freeze is estimated to have deprived the region of close to $3 million in funding.
The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA), State-based local government associations and the Federal Opposition all called on the Government to keep its promise to lift the freeze in this year’s Budget.
On Tuesday night the ALGA welcomed the decision to restore indexation and said councils could now begin to pick up the pieces.
“By restoring indexation to this important payment, the Government is honouring its commitment to communities to ensure that, as far as possible, every citizen regardless of where they live can have equitable access to services,” ALGA Vice President Mayor Damien Ryan said.
“However, there is still a long road ahead before councils recover from the freeze, as it permanently reduced the base level of the Financial Assistance Grants payments.”
The decision was also welcomed by South Burnett Mayor Keith Campbell.
The South Burnett Regional Council is currently planning its own 2017-2018 Budget, which will be released on June 26.
Until Tuesday night it had been doing so on the assumption FAGs grants would remain the same as they have for the past three years.
Mayor Campbell said the restoration of FAGs indexation would give the Council slightly more “elbow room” when it drew up its plans for the year ahead.
Member for Wide Bay Llew O’Brien and Member for Maranoa David Littleproud welcomed the move, too.
Earlier this year both Federal members had made personal representations to Local Government Minister Fiona Nash to lift the freeze, saying they were aware of the negative impact it was having on councils in their electorates.
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