Waste industry court battles cause million dollar legal budget blowout for Ipswich City Council

As multiple waste companies fight for appeals against the Ipswich City Council, the council may have to pull the money from capital projects.

Multimillion-dollar legal costs continue to mount against the Ipswich City Council, blowing the legal budget out by $1m.

Action involving multiple waste companies, including Austin BMI Pty Ltd, Cleanaway Solid Water Pty Ltd and Lantrak Property Holdings, has been draining the council’s budget in the appeals court, costing at least $3.6m.

The council originally allocated $2.6m in the budget for 2020-21, but this was exhausted by August.

Ipswich City Council chief finance officer Jeff Keech raised the issue at the October ordinary council meeting during a monthly financial performance report.

Mr Keech said the report noted legal costs were a major risk to the budget and questioned whether more court cases were on the horizon.

“It’s heavily driven by our legal cost associated with our waste that’s currently over budget by about $800,000-$1 million,” he said.

“That is primarily why materials and services are over by about $20,000 overall.

“That will be the main (budget) risk to keep an eye on.”

Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding asked Mr Keech if the council would have to change the budget to accommodate legal costs for an additional appeal.

“Yes that is something we will need to consider… once we get an indication of what those costs are likely to be,” he said.

“We will have to look at priorities. Certainly (the money) would be in the operating side of things, we wouldn’t necessarily have to stop capital projects but we may have to look at how we fund those.

“(Although) we would look at all the items in relation to our current ongoing revenue and also look for any other efficiencies.”

Mr Keech said overall the budget was healthy, although employee costs were also slightly over budget.

“We’re basically on budget, very close, just $1000 over,” he said.

“Employee costs are slightly over. There’s been a couple of one-off expenses that have occurred (like workers compensation).

“We’re also discussing annual leave.”