Council's burden is not fair

Our CEO Alison Smith had this opinion editorial published in today's edition (19 June 2024) of the Courier Mail.

You can read our full op-ed below. Courier Mail subscribers can read the op-ed in the paper here.

When councils are left behind, communities are left behind. 

Queensland faces two elections inside the space of eight months – the State election in October and the Federal poll expected by the middle of May. 

In their respective Budgets, both levels of government have offered plenty of sweeteners aimed at easing the political sting of the cost of living crisis, but there has been a disappointing lack of funding for councils. 

Governments and their Opposition cannot afford to forget councils in the race to the ballot box. 

When councils are forgotten, communities are forgotten. 

Councils are the level of government on the ground, delivering the day-to-day core services communities cannot live without. 

But while the demand for services beyond the core responsibilities of councils continue to grow, funding is falling ever shorter. 

It’s not just anecdotal. Our cost shifting research released in January proved in plain dollars and cents that councils are having to pick up the tab to the tune of $360 million a year for services that are the responsibility of the Federal and State governments or the private sector. 

Councils are doing it because they are the last resort of communities who need these services, whether it is childcare to keep families in smaller towns, undertaking to provide final dignity for departed loved ones or rebroadcasting free to air television and radio to keep residents entertained and, even more critically, informed during times of emergency. 

But this buck pass cannot continue. 

Councils are at a tipping point as they struggle to find the funds to provide the core services that are their responsibility and that communities rightly expect. Councils don’t have coal royalties to prop up their budgets! 

The State Government’s own auditor-general has identified growing numbers of councils in unsustainable financial circumstances, because they are having to pull the weight of other levels of government. 

Councils and communities need long term funding certainty, not sugar hits, to deliver the community infrastructure and services they need to ensure community liveability. 

Community liveability needs to be the lens through which funding decisions are focussed, and the level of government to deliver it is councils. 

Councils look their communities in the eye every single day. They know what they need and how to deliver it. 

When you tally up everything councils provide, the funding they are asking for in a cost of living crisis has never been better value. 

Councils are also the enablers of what their communities need.  

In a desperate housing market, councils and their communities deserve a fairer deal on housing infrastructure, to get the local roads, sewerage and playgrounds built that will deliver the lots ready for construction without a financial sting that sets ratepayers back at a time when every dollar counts. 

The LGAQ has launched its Vote for Local website and public campaign that will help State election voters decide which candidates will best meet their needs and priorities when it comes time to cast their vote. 

It is long-term grassroots funding to councils that will improve liveability across the state no matter who is in office.