February 28, 2022
The South Burnett Regional Council will call on the State Government to conduct an independent review into the operation of the Queensland Local Government Grants Commission (QLGGC).
It will also call for a full review of the model used by the QLGGC to assess the annual Financial Assistance Grants (FAGs) given to Queensland councils.
And it will request that until both things are done, the State Government call a halt to any changes planned for current FAGs allocations.
The move has come after the QLGGC’s most recent review of the FAGs model last December.
The review has cut funding to almost one-third of the State’s councils – most in rural and remote areas – while increasing funding to the remainder.
The change will mean the South Burnett Regional Council’s FAGs grants will reduce by 21 per cent over the next three years.
This would cost the Council between $1.5 and $2 million, forcing it to impose annual rate rises of 5 to 7 per cent to maintain current services.
The changes have come after the South Burnett endured $10 million in FAGs cuts between 2012 and 2018, a loss which threw the burden of making up the shortfall on to the shoulders of ratepayers.
The motion to call on the State Government to investigate the QLGGC, make its FAGs funding model public and freeze any changes until a full investigation has been carried out was discussed at last week’s monthly meeting.
The motion was prompted by what CEO Mark Pitt described as an “underwhelming” response from the QLGGC’s chairman to a letter from Council which asked if he could explain how the decision to cut the region’s FAGs grant was arrived at.
Mayor Brett Otto said he agreed with Mr Pitt’s assessment but thought describing the QLGGC’s response as “underwhelming” was too kind.
Mayor Otto said he had found the response “disappointing and dismissive”, noting that it failed to answer questions the Council had put and failed to provide any information about how the cuts were arrived at.
Mr Pitt said he had been in touch with a number of other Councils hit by similar cuts and they were all equally in the dark about how the QLGGC arrived at its final decision.
The result was that it seemed likely a working group of affected councils would be formed, and he hoped this group could meet with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to discuss the matter.
Mr Pitt said copies of correspondence about the issue have been forwarded to local State and Federal members and the Local Government Association of Queensland.
Mr Pitt also noted the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) had expressed its disappointment about the QLGGC’s decision.
The ALGA thought the cuts indicated Queensland’s councils were being underfunded by the Federal Government and the FAGs pool needed to be expanded.
The motion to press ahead with opposing the FAGs cut was carried unanimously.
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- Federal Budget Could Cost Council ‘Millions’
- What The Budget Means To You
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- Council Loses $1.4m In Grants
