{"id":357474,"date":"2025-02-13T11:52:21","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T01:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=357474"},"modified":"2025-02-13T11:52:21","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T01:52:21","slug":"coalition-to-try-to-look-at-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/02\/13\/coalition-to-try-to-look-at-grants\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalition ‘To Try To Look At’ Grants"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Member for Maranoa David Littleproud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

February 13, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nationals Leader David Littleproud says a Coalition Federal Government would “try to look at and recalibrate” the size of the Financial Assistance Grants to local councils.<\/p>\n

Mr Littleproud was questioned about the grants – which provide a large chunk of revenue for regional and remote councils – while talking to a rural radio station in NSW on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

Financial Assistance Grants have declined from 1 per cent of Commonwealth taxation revenue in 1996 to just 0.49 per cent in 2023-24 .<\/p>\n

The Australian Local Government Association says the estimate for 2024-25 is 0.51 per cent.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Littleproud told Radio 2BS Bathurst that the Federal Government allocated the grant money to the State governments which determined the amount distributed to each individual council.<\/p>\n

“In my home state of Queensland, they’ve recalibrated that calculation to give more to the smaller councils because they have less of a rate base,” Mr Littleproud said.<\/p>\n

“In Sydney City, they could move the rates by 0.1 per cent. That’ll turn (in) millions of dollars. To get the same amount in a little council, you’d have to lift rates by 5 to 10 per cent and that kills us all.<\/p>\n

“So this is where there’s an opportunity for us to lean in and change that calculation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“And it’s something we started to do when we were in government and something we’ll continue to try to look at and recalibrate, how the pie is cut.”<\/p>\n

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