November 11, 2025
South Burnett Regional Council has called for an urgent review of Federal Government charges after being slugged with a 23 per cent rise for hosting the Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF) service at Kingaroy Airport.
TAF provides weather data for incoming and outgoing aircraft and supplies information for a radius of five nautical miles around the airport.
It is run by the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) and is operated alongside the BOM weather station at the airport which provides data for Kingaroy and the wider South Burnett.
“Access to weather data is imperative for our community, for our Council to prepare for disasters, as well as our airport users including the Royal Flying Doctor Service and other medical specialists servicing our area,” Council CEO Mark Pitt said.
“The fee increase and costs to host the weather station is $76,614.52, a 23 per cent rate rise from the 2024-2025 financial year.
“Council has no say or opportunity to negotiate the contract price with BOM prior to each financial year.
“This is another example of the cost-shifting from the Federal Government to a local council.”
Mr Pitt said Federal Environment and Water Minister Senator Murray Watt had stated the Bureau did not charge for standard equipment but rather the specialised aviation forecasts.
The review of fees and charges was in alignment with the Federal Government’s “charging framework”.
However, Mr Pitt said both the Federal Government and BOM had failed to be transparent about the value of overhead costs attributed to the local TAF service, nor was any discount provided to Council for hosting the standard weather station.
Nationals Leader and Member for Maranoa David Littleproud backed the SBRC’s complaint.
“The Bureau of Meteorology has been littered with errors for some years now – their business model is to fail and then ask for more money,” Mr Littleproud said.
“Council should not be forking out for the bill for the BOM’s mistakes, or be forced to pay enormous fee increases.”
Mr Pitt said a review of the “unjust fee rise” was of the highest priority to ensure South Burnett residents continued to have fair and reasonable access to an essential community service.
After the extravagant costs to build BoM’s brand new web site, someone now needs to pay for its exorbitant operating costs – BoM can’t. Big profiteering for consultants.
Well, perhaps now the Council knows how its ratepayers feel, getting hits they didn’t expect and being unable to respond against a level of government that doesn’t really care and doesn’t listen…
Agreed Michael, it would almost seem poetic if it didn’t just add to the list of reasons to increase our rates the next time around.