‘Crisis levels’: peak farming body issues warning over rising Tasmanian council rates

Tasmania’s peak agricultural body has issued an urgent warning against rising council rates, with TasFarmers claiming recent price hikes threatened to push primary producers to the brink.

Farmland, Coal River Valley, Tasmania, Australia. Twenty minutes from Hobart, the Coal River region surrounding Richmond is an award-winning farming and wine producing area with a similar latitude to the famous wine regions of France and Germany.

Tasmania’s peak agricultural body has issued an urgent warning against rising council charges across the state, with TasFarmers chief executive, Nathan Calman, claiming recently publicised rate hikes threatened to push primary producers to the brink.

In an open letter to mayors and councillors in Tasmania’s 29 municipalities, Mr Calman said with farmers facing a period of sustained global pressure from increased market competition and unpredictable tariff regimes, the sector could ill afford the imposition of extra local government costs – especially those that exceeded the Consumer Price Index.

Following recent rate increases announced for Launceston, Kingborough, and Kentish councils, Mr Calman said primary producers were being put under increasing financial pressure at a time when they could least afford it.

TasFarmers chief executive Nathan Calman and TasFarmers president Ian Sauer are calling on the government to get on with the job of delivering the Tamar Valley Irrigation Scheme. Picture: Stephanie Dalton

“All sectors in the economy face increasing costs, few have the luxury of simply hiking their prices,” Mr Calman wrote.

“Revenue into many councils has increased in recent years courtesy of increased property valuations, but increased valuations do not mean increased income for primary producers – in fact as looming rate rises shows, it just means increased costs to farmers that can’t be recovered.

“The cost of doing business in agriculture is reaching crisis levels – all inputs are increasing in price due to conflicts in Europe and the Middle East including the Red Sea – the Australian supermarket duopoly is placing unprecedented pressure on Tasmanian producers to supply better produce at greater volumes, but at lower prices.

“Tasmanian farmers are some of the most innovative in the country, but it is fast reaching the point that rising costs, including local government rates, will push some farmers past the tipping point.

Farmland, Coal River Valley, Tasmania, Australia. Twenty minutes from Hobart, the Coal River region surrounding Richmond is an award-winning farming and wine producing area with a similar latitude to the famous wine regions of France and Germany.

“These real and potential rate rises will have a serious financial impact on the primary producers in all municipalities, and we urge all councils to review the need for this rise.”

Chief executive of the Local Government Association of Tasmania, Dion Lester, said that when setting rates each financial year, councils took in account local economic and business conditions – including that of the farming sector.

Mr Lester said other factors influencing council rate calculations included the essential services they provided, new infrastructure needs, compliance with legislative requirements, and feedback from ratepayers.

Many of the costs faced by the state’s local government sector were out of its control, he said.

“Tasmanian councils manage more than $11.8bn of infrastructure, which includes 80 per cent of the roads in Tasmania,” Mr Lester said.

Dion Lester – Chief Executive Officer of the Local Government Association of Tasmania

“In the last three years, the cost of construction materials alone has increased by 30 per cent. “Meanwhile, CPI has increased by less than half that at the same time.”

But Mr Calman urged councils to adopt a renewed “focus on efficiency”, with a view to reducing – or at least stabilising – rates.

“Councils have a clear responsibility to do the right thing – any rate rise in the current economic climate is the wrong thing to do to farmers and the communities – your communities – that depend upon them,” Mr Calman said,

Originally published as ‘Crisis levels’: peak farming body issues warning over rising Tasmanian council rates