Rockhampton Regional Council slam decision to cut financial assistance grants

Rockhampton’s Mayor has warned “anything is on the table” as council begins to hold special meetings after its financial assistance grants were slashed by the Queensland Government. Here’s what it could mean for ratepayers.

Rockhampton Regional Council hasn’t ruled out a rise in rates after it had millions in funding cut by the Local Government Grants Commission.

Council has slammed a decision that was made by the commission late last year that reclassified Rockhampton Regional Council to the same category as areas such as the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Moreton Bay and the Sunshine Coast.

Other councils also impacted include Bundaberg, Toowoomba and the Fraser Coast.

The decision means council will suffer a reduction in funding by $6.774 million a year, and Mayor Tony Williams said special meetings would be held to plan and budget for the changes going forward.

The Financial Assistance Grants are funded by the Federal Government and managed by the State Government through the independent commission.

Mr Williams described the announcement as “the worst news possible”.

“As a result, this will see our Financial Assistance Grant funding cut by 25 per cent a year so that in three years’ time we will have gone from $9 million to just over $2.2 million,” he said.

Mayor Tony Williams said council were continuing to

“It’s a five per cent reduction in operational costs for our council through no fault of our own.

“We’ve lobbied the independent grants council to reconsider the decision, but those calls for help have been dismissed.

“We’re very concerned about the way this process has been undertaken with very little consultation...we’re suffering through a drought with Mount Morgan in our area and carting over 40 truck loads of water a day, which we are managing in our budget, but we’re also impacted by Covid-19 and our airport has seen a revenue loss of $6.7 million.”

Mr Williams said Rockhampton Regional Council would have the lowest population in its new category with around 80,000 residents, compared to the 1.1 million people in Brisbane’s council area.

“It’s something we’re still going to the Grants Commission with arguing the case that this impact is far greater on our regional council than any others, we’re not giving up,” he said.

Mr Williams said it was hard to say what the full impact on ratepayers would be as not decisions had been made, but he said “nothing was off the table”.

He said if council didn’t act now, it would be broke within the next five years.

“We’re working into those budgets at the moment, but having a five per cent loss in our revenue will impact the organisation going forward,” he said.

“I’ll be working with my colleagues and council officers to try and minimise the impacts, it’s a staged reduction over three years so whether we take a staged approach or do it all in one go is something we’ll work through.

“This is just another added blow to the council going forward, we’ll be looking at all options when we work through those strategic meetings.

“If we were to do nothing our council would be broke in five years, there’s tough decisions to be made and we’re informing the public now that this decision has been made.”

Deputy Mayor Neil Fisher said the cuts put a “massive burden” on everyone in the region.

“The thing that frustrates me even more is the Grants Commission said ‘we’ll reduce you by about two per cent’, but we were reduced by five per cent,” he said.

“Why are we being penalised? Why are the residents in our region being penalised like this? It is unfair.”

A spokesperson for the Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning said it had been 10 years since the Commission’s last review of the methodology it used.

“The Queensland Government is committed to advocating with the Commonwealth Government for a better funding deal for Queensland councils from the Financial Assistance Grant,” the spokesperson said.

“The responsibility for allocating the Commonwealth Government’s Financial Assistance Grant to Queensland councils, falls with the independent Queensland Local Government Grants Commission.

“It has been approximately 10 years since the Commission’s last review of the methodology and decisions about changes to the methodology are the responsibility of the Commission.

“The need for a review of the methodology was supported through feedback received by the Commission from Queensland councils.”

The spokesperson said consultation with councils was an “important part of the methodology review”.

“Consultation with councils was an important part of the methodology review, which included information sessions run by the Commission and the opportunity for councils to respond to a methodology review discussion paper,” they said.

“It’s also in line with a resolution of the 2020 Local Government Association of Queensland Annual Conference.

“The Commission’s review focused on considering if there is a more equitable distribution for the Financial Assistance Grant.”

Council held a special meeting on Tuesday to begin discussions on the issue and will hold another on Monday.