Keith Woods opinion: Council would not get away with rate rise confusion if they were a business

Many home owners were surprised to find this week that their rates bills had gone up by more than they were led to expect. If a private business tried the same, they wouldn’t last long, writes Keith Woods.

To this columnist’s great pleasure, visit almost any coffee shop on the Gold Coast and a print copy of the Gold Coast Bulletin will be available to read.

There is nothing quite like enjoying a quality brew – and in this city we are blessed with great coffee from Yatala down to Rainbow Bay – and we hope, perusing these pages for the latest local news.

Imagine, however, if you entered that coffee shop having being told your cup of caffeinated goodness would cost $5, only to instead be charged $6, due to the imposition of a number of difficult to understand levies and calculations listed in small print.

It’s not the sort of thing a private business like a coffee shop could get away with. You wouldn’t come back.

But this is how council appears to deal with rate rises.

When it passed its budget in June, the word was put out that the average rise in general rates would be 2.7 per cent.

But as notices dropped into inboxes on Monday – with the somewhat alarming email slug ‘Important Correspondence from City of Gold Coast’ – it was clear that the actual rises were quite different.

This writer copped a rise of just short of 11 per cent. As we reported in Wednesday’s paper, that does not appear to be unusual.

Should we be angry?

That’s a matter of debate. Like everyone else, council’s costs have gone up. I think we can all accept that.

The damage bill from Cyclone Alfred has been significant.

As with other employers, council’s wages bill has gone up significantly – following a period of high inflation in the economy, workers expect pay that helps them keep pace with their bills. If council refused, many people would take jobs elsewhere.

And even at 10 per cent, council’s rises are not the highest out there. This columnist’s house insurance also came up for renewal recently. Following tornadoes and cyclones, it’s approaching a second mortgage now. If you could point me towards an insurer that would keep this year’s rise to just 10 per cent, I’d bite your hand off.

Scarping on Surfers Paradise beach following Cyclone Alfred. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Yet the council rise still sticks in the craw.

Because unlike private companies, they do not appear open and straightforward about it.

And it’s not like you can politely decline their business, as per our coffee shop, and head to a competitor.

Council never say or do anything technically wrong – the 2.7 per cent figure is real in relation to a percentage charged – but positives are stressed over negatives in such a way that the average person can be forgiven for getting a completely false impression.

The truth is, through a combination of measures of which that percentage rise is just one part, people’s bills were always going to go up a lot more.

Why not tell people that in the first instance.

Is it, to use the well-worn Jack Nicholson phrase, that council believe ratepayers ‘just can’t handle the truth’?

People are no fools. Give it to them straight.

Former councillor William Owen Jones has made some excellent commentary on social media on the matter.

Among his comments on Monday was the following: “Running a City is expensive business; however, the headline from last month’s budget announcements of CPI (2.7 per cent) was clearly not really on the money.”

Mr Owen Jones said he would be “grateful if we were all just honest about the costs involved in running a city”.

I could not agree more.

All council’s smoke and mirrors routine around rates does is breed a resentment and cynicism that does nobody any favours.

A tram leaving the Gold Coast University Hospital station.

CENTRE POINT

Probably the most interesting debate to emerge from the Bulletin’s Future Gold Coast series was around whether this city needs a central business district – and if so where.

In many ways, everything else flows from this proposition.

Currently, businesses are spread willy-nilly across the city. It makes things like transport planning – everyone’s great obsession – quite a bit harder.

Expensive public transport or road projects are easier to justify when they are directed towards large clusters of people. The ribbon development of the Gold Coast over many decades means that is not often the case here.

There is an exception that proves the point – and it’s a recent enough development. The decision to site the Gold Coast University Hospital right beside Griffith University has created a large hub of workers and students. A hub now brilliantly served by the light rail.

Cluster office workers together in a CBD hub – rather than spread through disparate locations including Southport, Bundall and Robina – and transport solutions become easier.

It’s something we should certainly keep working towards.

DES HAS ENOUGH

You had to feel sorry for Titans coach Des Hasler on Sunday.

The Wests Tigers were there for the taking. But his team still managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

The last minutes of that game were immensely painful viewing.

The Titans’ season is obviously well past the point of no return, as is Hasler’s future as coach.

A win would have at least eased a little of the pain.

Instead it was another kick in the guts.

No wonder he lost it in the dressing room.

Follow @keithjwoods